Content:
A short prose manuscript that reads like notes towards a preface. However, Whitman appears to have returned to this manuscript at a later date, revising some phrases and suggesting that this scrap is the "best foot note of all for first page." In fact, portions of this manuscript were used in Whitman's footnote to "New Themes Entered Upon,"
Specimen Days & Collect
(1882–1883).
Content:
Three scraps of paper, pasted together to make one leaf. Whitman used lines from this manuscript in separate sections of
Specimen Days & Collect
(1882–1883). A large portion of this manuscript was revised and appeared under the heading, "Final Confessions—Literary Tests." The line which reads, "I must take notes (The ruling passion strong in sickness and—But I must not say it yet)," appeared slightly revised in the 29 January 1881 issue of
The Critic,
under the title "How I Get Around at 60, and Take Notes. (No. 1.)" before appearing in
Specimen Days
, as part of the section titled "New Themes Entered Upon."
Content:
Five scraps of paper containing prose notes. One scrap is dated January 12, 1881. On another scrap, "in preface? to my Notes" is written along the top of the page. Together these five scraps of paper comprise a nearly complete draft of "New Themes Entered Upon,"
Specimen Days & Collect
(1882–1883). This piece of prose first appeared in the 29 January 1881 issue of
The Critic
, under the title "How I Get Around at 60, and Take Notes. (No. 1)" before it was published in
Specimen Days
and finally collected in
Complete Prose Works
(1892). Some lines in this manuscript can also be found in "[I just spin out my notes]," another prose manuscript held in the Livezey collection.
