Content:
The recto of this item contains a draft of portion of "'Tis But Ten Years Since (Third Paper)," one
of six pieces about the Civil War that Whitman published in the New York
Weekly Graphic
in January and February, 1874. In
1875, these pieces were gathered and republished as
Memoranda During the War
. The
portion of the article that Whitman was drafting here is a short note that
appeared at the end of the third installment, informing readers that even
though these articles were written as a series, "each paper is, for the
casual reader's purposes, complete in itself." This text was not found in
any of the other articles and was not included in
Memoranda During the War
. The third
installment appeared on 14 February 1874. The
manuscript on the verso did not contribute to any known published piece.
Whitman Archive Title: [other than merely literary points]
Content:
A heavily revised draft fragment, composed of several scraps of paper pasted together to form two leaves. The notes found on the first leaf were used in "Preface, 1876, to the two-volume Centennial Edition of L. of G. and 'Two Rivulets'" (1876). The prose fragment on the second leaf contributed to "Darwinism—(then Furthermore)," a short prose piece that orginally appeared in
Two Rivulets
(1876), but that was later incorporated into the "Notes Left Over" section of
Collect
in
Specimen Days & Collect
(1882–83). Both of these pieces were eventually included in
Complete Prose Works
(1892). Cancelled Civil War "reminiscences" on the Battle of First Fredericksburgh and the sinking of the U.S.S.
Hatteras
appear on the verso of the second leaf. Whitman wrote about both of these events in "'Tis But Ten Years Since (Third Paper),"
New York Weekly Graphic
(14 February 1874).
