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Walt Whitman to Sylvester Baxter, 18 June [1887]

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Sylvester Baxter, 18 June [1887]
  • Date: June 18, [1887]
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: bpl.00013
  • Source: The Walt Whitman Collection, Boston Public Library. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.

    Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
  • Contributors to digital file: Alex Ashland Stefan Schöberlein Caterina Bernardini Marie Ernster Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Sylvester Baxter, 18 June [1887]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 03 May 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: bpl.00013.xml (TEI)
 bpl.00013.001_large.jpg 328 Mickle street— Camden New Jersey June 18 Dear S B—

I just send Kennedy's1 letter & write on it what suggests to me impromptu—Yes I am making calculation on a conveniently plann'd & built house, & garden, of my own (cheap & democratic) either in the woods, or in sight of the sea, where I can haul in & breathe a sane atmosphere, & be secure like, either for the summers, or all the time yet vouchsafed to me. I think it would be best to get all the money–fund2 in Mrs. F's,3 O'Reilly's,4 K's & your hands (& any others if any others there be)—putting it in a draught payable to my order & send it to me here—I feel as if I could suit my wants & tastes better probably deciding & directing the practicality of the whole thing myself—(I am sure you will all understand it.) Show this to Mrs. F and O'R—I wish them to know too how appreciatingly & gratefully I feel ab't their help—& that I appoint you to fully act as my representative & (if need be) receiver in the matter.5

As I write I am sitting here by the open window—Birds singing & fine weather—but hot—Herbert Gilchrist,6 of England, is here painting a portrait of me to take to E—

God bless you & all— Walt Whitman  bpl.00014.001_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Sylvester Baxter (1850–1927) was on the staff of the Boston Herald. Apparently he met Whitman for the first time when the poet delivered his Lincoln address in Boston in April, 1881; see Rufus A. Coleman, "Whitman and Trowbridge," PMLA 63 (1948), 268. Baxter wrote many newspaper columns in praise of Whitman's writings, and in 1886 attempted to obtain a pension for the poet. For more, see Christopher O. Griffin, "Baxter, Sylvester [1850–1927]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).

Notes

  • 1. William Sloane Kennedy (1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman, in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was "too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February 1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 2. Boston friends were raising money to buy a summer cottage they hoped would improve Whitman's failing health. Whitman eventually used the money to build his extravagant mausoleum in Harleigh Cemetery—to the shock and dismay of those who had worked hardest to solicit money for the cottage. [back]
  • 3. Elizabeth Fairchild was the wife of Colonel Charles Fairchild, the president of a paper company, to whom Whitman sent the Centennial Edition on March 2, 1876 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). He mailed her husband a copy of Progress in April, 1881, shortly after his visit to Boston, where he probably met the Fairchilds for the first time (Commonplace Book). [back]
  • 4. John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–1890) was a fervent Irish patriot who joined the British Army in order to sabotage it. He was arrested and sentenced to be hanged in 1866. Later the decree was altered, and O'Reilly was sent to Australia, where he escaped on an American whaler in 1869. In 1876 he became the coeditor of the Boston Pilot, a position which he held until his death in 1890. See William G. Schofield, Seek for a Hero: The Story of John Boyle O'Reilly (New York: Kennedy, 1956). For more on O'Reilly, see also the letter from Whitman to James R. Osgood of May 8, 1881. [back]
  • 5. In his reply on June 21, 1887, Baxter again agreed to give Whitman complete freedom in the expenditure of the funds, and enclosed a check for $373. [back]
  • 6. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist (1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro, "Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
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