Walt Whitman to James Redpath, 28 July 1886

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to James Redpath, 28 July 1886
Date: July 28, 1886
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00491
Source: Papers of Walt Whitman (MSS 3829), Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 39. 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, 28 July 1886." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 20 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: uva.00491.xml (TEI)

328 Mickle Street Camden New Jersey July 28 '86 My dear Redpath

Yours of 26th rec'd—All right & no harm done—But I mortally hate to have any thing with my name signed go to press without my seeing proof—Also I wanted the slips—Yes I will furnish you the (ab't) seven page article you request, & soon1—My health much as usual—better this summer so far than last—

Walt Whitman

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. See the letter from Whitman to James Redpath of July 10, 1886. On August 6 Whitman sent Redpath "Robert Burns As Poet and Person," for which he received $70 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Whitman returned the proof on August 31 (Whitman's Commonplace Book). The essay appeared in The North American Review in November 1886. [back]