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1887. George C. Cox, New York. Saunders #95. Courtesy Charles E.
Feinberg. This was Whitman's favorite photograph from
the Cox session ("it seems to me so excellent--so to stand out
from all the others"), a photo he began referring to as "the
Laughing Philosopher": "Do you think the name I have given it
justified? do you see the laugh in it? I'm not wholly sure:
yet I call it that. I can say honestly that I like it better
than any other picture of that set: Cox made six or seven of
them: yet I am conscious of
something foreign in it--something not just right in that
place." Still, Whitman believed the picture was "like a
total--like
a whole story," and he was proud that Tennyson--to whom WW sent
the photo--admired it: "liked it much--oh! so much."
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