We are in receipt of your letter and regret, exceedingly, that we are unable to remit the amount you name at present. We have been unable to collect, and our statements of last month have failed to bring us in a quarter of what is due. This is only a temporary embarrassment but it places us in an unpleasant position for the time.
We hope to be able to forward the amount due you soon loc_jc.00262_large.jpg and will certainly do so at our earliest possible opportunity
We hope to visit Philadelphia soon and will not fail to call upon you. Hoping that our failure to raise the money will not inconvenience you seriously
We remain Yours very Sincerely C. P. SomerbyCorrespondent:
Charles P. Somerby was one of the book dealers whom
Walt Whitman termed "embezzlers." In 1875, Somerby assumed the liabilities of
Butts & Co.; see Whitman's February 4, 1874,
letter to Asa K. Butts & Company. This proved to be a matter of
embarrassment to Somerby, who, in reply to a lost letter on March 16, 1875, was
unable "to remit the amount you name at present." On May
5, 1875, he wrote: "It is very mortifying to me not to be in a
position to send you even a small portion of the balance your due." On October 4, 1875, Somerby sent $10—his
only cash payment: "Have made every exertion to raise the $200 you require,
and find it utterly impossible to get it. . . . We had hoped that you would
accept our offer to get out your new book, and thus more than discharge our
indebtedness to you." On April 19, 1876, Somerby
reported that "I have been losing, instead of gaining." On May 6, 1876, he sent Whitman a statement
pertaining to some volumes; on May 12, 1876, he
included a complete financial statement: in eighteen months he had made only one
cash payment, and owed Walt Whitman $215.17. The firm was still unable to
make a payment on September 28, 1876. In August
1877, Whitman received a notice of bankruptcy dated August 8, 1877,
from, in his
own words, "assignee [Josiah Fletcher, an attorney] of the rascal Chas P.
Somerby." These manuscripts are in The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.