loc.03119.002.jpg
Ja 12 '911
Have got back & copied out fair (adding to) the Dutch paper.2 I think it has value, but it can be but a sketch
(suggestions). I send it this A.M. to Stoddart.3 You will
like it. Told him to hand over to you if not used, or to
Traubel.4 Thank you Traubel for the Shillaber5 paper. We shall
undoubtedly use in whole or nearly so. It did me good to hear that somebody in the
world believes in me & thinks kindly of me. I shall
emerge—when it suits me.
affec.
W.S.K.
on cars Mon to [illegible]6
loc.03119.001.jpg
1891 | 13 | Jan | see notes
Correspondent:
William Sloane Kennedy
(1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also
published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on
the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander
Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman,
in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse
indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was
"too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February
1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This postal card is
addressed: Walt Whitman | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: Boston | Mass |
Jan 12 91 | 12 30 PM; Camden, N.J. | Jan | 13 | 9 AM | 1891 | Rec'd. [back]
- 2. William Sloane Kennedy's
"Dutch Traits of Walt Whitman" was published in The
Conservator 1 (February 1891), 90–91. It was reprinted in In Re Walt Whitman, ed. Horace Traubel, et al.
(Philadelphia: David McKay, 1893), 195–199. [back]
- 3. Joseph Marshall Stoddart
(1845–1921) published Stoddart's Encyclopaedia
America, established Stoddart's Review in 1880,
which was merged with The American in 1882, and became
the editor of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1886. On
January 11, 1882, Whitman received an
invitation from Stoddart through J. E. Wainer, one of his associates, to dine
with Oscar Wilde on January 14 (Clara Barrus, Whitman and
Burroughs—Comrades [Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1931],
235n). [back]
- 4. Horace L. Traubel (1858–1919)
was an American essayist, poet, and magazine publisher. He is best remembered as
the literary executor, biographer, and self-fashioned "spirit child" of Walt
Whitman. During the late 1880s and until Whitman's death in 1892, Traubel visited
the poet virtually every day and took thorough notes of their conversations,
which he later transcribed and published in three large volumes entitled With Walt Whitman in Camden (1906, 1908, & 1914).
After his death, Traubel left behind enough manuscripts for six more volumes of
the series, the final two of which were published in 1996. For more on Traubel,
see Ed Folsom, "Traubel, Horace L. [1858–1919]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber
(1814–1890) was an editor and humorist. He became famous for writing a
series of articles as Mrs. Ruth Partington for the Boston
Daily Post. Whitman reminisces about Shillaber in Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, August 5, 1888. [back]
- 6. Kennedy has written this
postscript at the top of the postal card, near the date. He seems to be
indicating that he will be traveling by train the following day. [back]