Walt Whitman to James Redpath, 10 July [1886]

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to James Redpath, 10 July [1886]
Date: July 10, 1886
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: tex.00450
Source: The Walt Whitman Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 37. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schöberlein Kyle Barton
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to James Redpath, 10 July [1886]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 18 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: tex.00450.xml (TEI)

328 Mickle Street Camden N J July 10 Noon My dear J R

By an announcement in the Phil: Press this morning I suppose you have used my "How I made a Book"1 &c for the newspaper syndicate—All right. What I am somewhat concerned ab't is that I have not seen the proof (which is always an important point with me)—& my 100 slips—What I mainly write now for, is to say, if possible, to have the slips run off from your type if still standing, & sent me here—Thanks for the prompt pay—

Walt Whit[man]

Correspondent:
James Redpath (1833–1891), an antislavery activist, journalist, and longtime friend of Whitman, was the author of The Public Life of Capt. John Brown (Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, 1860), a correspondent for the New York Tribune during the war, and the originator of the "Lyceum" lectures. He met Whitman in Boston in 1860, and he remained an enthusiastic admirer; see Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Friday, January 4, 1889. He concluded his first letter to Whitman on June 25, 1860: "I love you, Walt! A conquering Brigade will ere long march to the music of your barbaric jawp." Redpath became managing editor of The North American Review in 1886. See also Charles F. Horner, The Life of James Redpath and the Development of the Modern Lyceum, (New York: Barse & Hopkins, 1926); John R. McKivigan, Forgotten Firebrand: James Redpath and the Making of Nineteenth-Century America, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008); and J.R. LeMaster, "Redpath, James [1833–1891]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).

Notes

1. This article, with "A Backward Glance on My Own Road," "How Leaves of Grass Was Made," and "My Book and I" became "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" in November Boughs (1888), 5–18. [back]