The Whitman Gallery


1887?. George C. Cox, New York? (Note identical clothing in following Cox photos.) Saunders #99. Courtesy Ohio Wesleyan University, Bayley Collection. See notes for following photo. Whitman told Traubel he couldn't recall the name of the photographer, but he worried a great deal about his image in this portrait: "Does it look glum--sickish--painful? Has it that in it? They say so. I hate to think of myself as pensive, despondent, melancholy. . . . Does it look unkind? No man has any excuse for looking morose or cruel: he should do better. . . . That is so important to me: to not look downcast--cloud up things. . . . If you should ever use this portrait in any way--for this, that--be sure to say Walt Whitman was not a glum man despite his photographers."
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