431 Stevens st.
Camden N Jersey
April 12
J Q A Ward1
Dear Sir2
In a letter from John Swinton3 as he speaks of your kind desire to
subscribe for some copies of my new edition, books, I send you the enclosed slips. Of course
I should be happy to furnish you with any copies—
Walt Whitman
Notes
- 1. Ward (1830–1910) was, according to
Dictionary of American Biography, "the first native
sculptor to create, without benefit of foreign training, an impressive body of
good work." Ward informed Walt Whitman on April 23,
1876, that on May 1, 1876, he would order five sets of the new
edition. The order was sent on June 1, 1876; Walt
Whitman noted receipt of $50 from Ward on June 6, 1876 (Commonplace Book,
Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
- 2. Walt Whitman wrote for the first
time to distinguished American sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910)
on April 12, 1876. Ward (1830–1910) was,
according to Dictionary of American Biography, "the first
native sculptor to create, without benefit of foreign training, an impressive
body of good work." Ward informed Walt Whitman on April
23, 1876, that on May 1, 1876, he would order five sets of the new
edition of Leaves of Grass (Charles E. Feinberg
Collection; Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden
[1906–1996], 2:278). The order was sent on June 1, 1876 (Charles E.
Feinberg Collection); Walt Whitman noted receipt of $50 from Ward on June 6,
1876 (Whitman's Commonplace Book). [back]
- 3. Scottish-born John Swinton (1829–1901), a
journalist and friend of Karl Marx, became acquainted with Whitman during the
Civil War. Swinton, managing editor of the New York
Times, frequented Pfaff's beer cellar, where he probably met Whitman.
Whitman's correspondence with Swinton began on February
23, 1863. Swinton's enthusiasm for Whitman was unbounded. On September 25, 1868, Swinton wrote: "I am profoundly
impressed with the great humanity, or genius, that expresses itself through you.
I read this afternoon in the book. I read its first division which I never
before read. I could convey no idea to you of how it affects my soul. It is more
to me than all other books and poetry." On June 23,
1874, Swinton wrote what the poet termed "almost like a love letter":
"It was perhaps the very day of the publication of the first edition of the
'Leaves of Grass' that I saw a copy of it at a newspaper stand in Fulton street,
Brooklyn. I got it, looked into it with wonder, and felt that here was something
that touched on depths of my humanity. Since then you have grown before me,
grown around me, and grown into me" (Horace Traubel, With Walt
Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, April 10, 1888). He praised Whitman in the New York Herald on April 1, 1876 (reprinted in Richard Maurice Bucke,
Walt Whitman [Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883],
36–37). Swinton was in 1874 a candidate of the Industrial Political Party
for the mayoralty of New York. From 1875 to 1883, he was with the New York Sun, and for the next four years edited the
weekly labor journal, John Swinton's Paper. When this
publication folded, he returned to the Sun. See Robert
Waters, Career and Conversation of John Swinton (Chicago:
C.H. Kerr, 1902), and Meyer Berger, The History of The New
York Times, 1851–1951 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951),
250–251. For more on Swinton, see also Donald Yannella, "Swinton, John (1829–1901)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]