With Walt Whitman in Camden vol. 4 (1953)

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EDITORIAL NOTE

Three previous volumes of these conversations were published by Horace Traubel:
With Walt Whitman in Camden
Vol. I: Conversations, March 28 to July 14, 1888 (Boston: Small, Maynard and Company, 1906)
Vol. II: Conversations, July 16 to October 31, 1888 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1908)
Vol. III: Conversations, November 1, 1888, to January 20, 1889 (New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1914)

At the time of his death in 1919, Horace Traubel had transcribed and arranged the material for a fourth volume, represented in the present text. This was a typescript, which Traubel corrected in ink. Although the manuscript was then considered by a publisher who declined the venture, there is no final indication as to whether Traubel regarded it as fully ready for the printer.

Therefore, certain editorial decisions had to be made in the present edition. We have here reproduced Horace Traubel's typescript unaltered, except for the silent correction of obvious errors or inconsistencies. Wherever error is suspected but not obvious the text has been allowed to stand, followed by [ sic]. The copied of documents and letters quoted in the text bear Traubel's corrections, attesting to his scrupulous attention to accuracy. The present editor has not altered any document or letter for any reason. Letters of foreign correspondents, sometimes in crabbed idiom, have of course been left as Traubel reproduced them. "I'll not doctor," he wrote, "Schmidt's English."

In the previous volumes Traubel established certain practices and conventions which he also followed in the present typescript. These we have retained, except for the placing of quotation marks, where for clarity we have followed modern practice in placing commas and periods inside quotes. In the taste of the day, Traubel

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made considerable use of the hyphen, which we have not altered. He also made an individualistic use of the colon to punctuate the informal phrases of a running conversation, where logical punctuation was not always possible in any case, and we allowed it to stand wherever it occurred. We followed Traubel's style, also, in printing all titles in Roman, and without quotation marks. Actual errors in spelling, including proper names, were silently corrected, but older spellings, then accepted, were not modernized unless Traubel himself was inconsistent in the spelling of a given word. Mrs. Ellen O'Connor used both "Nelly" and "Nellie," and so, accordingly, we followed the text. Traubel was inconsistent in the italicizing of foreign words; we have used italics wherever modern practice calls for them. Traubel did not attempt to regularize the valedictory lines at the conclusions of letters, and we followed his text exactly in this respect.

The editor expresses his deep gratitude to Mrs. Anne Montgomerie Traubel for her constant faith that her husband's record would finally be published in its entirety; for her agency in preserving the manuscript and valuable illustrative materials; and for conversations, through the years, which furnished a first-hand insight into Whitman's Camden period, beyond the scope of the printed records. Gertrude Traubel has also proved a patient and most valuable friend and adviser. I am grateful also to my friend, Charles E. Feinberg of Detroit, whose faith in the value of this publication, and whose practical generosity, provided the conditions necessary to bring this book to press. Mr. Feinberg also enthusiastically put at the editor's disposal a number of illustrative items from his own Whitman collection, and made his time and his special knowledge available for the consideration of a number of problems presented by the text. To the staff of the Rare Book Room of the University of Pennsylvania Library, and its Whitman Collection, I am very much indebted for the use of supporting documents, manuscripts, and rare volumes; and to Neda M. Westlake, of the Rare Book Room Staff, for assistance with difficult identifications, and in making a comprehensive topical index. Finally, the editorial staff of the University of Pennsylvania Press, especially Mary M. Wildermuth, furnished unusual and painstaking editorial assistance, which I acknowledge with appreciation.

S.B.

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