Walt Whitman to Talcott Williams, 22 September 1891
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328 Mickle St: Camden1
Certainly come over & Mr. Willard2 too—I keep on much the same. Fox3 has not sent yet4—
1819–92 Walt Whitman
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Correspondent:
Talcott Williams
(1849–1928) was associated with the New York Sun
and World as well as the Springfield Republican before he became the editor of the Philadelphia Press in 1879. His newspaper vigorously defended Whitman
in news articles and editorials after the Boston censorship of 1882. For more
information about Williams, see Philip W. Leon, "Williams, Talcott (1849–1928)," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This postal card is addressed: Talcott Williams | 1833 Spruce Street | Philadelphia. It is postmarked: Camden | Sep 22 | 8PM | 91; Received | Sep | 22 | 1891 | Phila. [back]
- 2. Edward Smith Willard (1853–1915) was an English actor, specializing in Shakespeare, and became famous in the 1880s for his roles in Sir Charles Young's Jim the Penman and Henry Arthur Jones's The Middleman. He acted for the first time in the U.S. in 1890–1891. (See Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Wednesday, September 23, 1891, where he says that "Talcott William . . . to be over with Willard, the English actor." [back]
- 3. Edward B. Fox was an optician with an office on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. He invented and patented several types of eyeglasses in the late 1880s and early 1890s (see The Jeweler's Circular and Horological Review [November 28, 1894], 68). [back]
- 4. Williams had suggested that Whitman have his eyes examined. Dr. George de Schweinitz (1858–1938), an expert opthamologist and educator who served as the oculist to President Woodrow Wilson, examined Whitman on September 16, 1891, at the poet's Mickle Street home. See the letter from Whitman to the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke of September 16, 1891. Whitman was waiting to receive a pair of eyeglasses from Fox. [back]