Title: Walt Whitman to Trübner & Company, 1 October 1878
Date: October 1, 1878
Whitman Archive ID: duk.00749
Source: The Trent Collection of Walt Whitman Manuscripts, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1964), 3:137–138. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Alicia Bones, Grace Thomas, Anthony Dreesen, and Kevin McMullen
431 Stevens Street
Camden New Jersey U S America
Oct 1 '78—
Dear Sirs
Yours of Sept 14 with $14 for Two Sets (4 Vols) of my books has come safely to hand1—Thank you sincerely—
I to-day forward to Wiley & Sons, New York, Twelve Sets (24 Vols) of my books, to be sent you—which please acknowledge as soon as received—Two of the Twelve Sets being paid for, there are Ten Sets, for which you are to acc't to me at $7 the set—& you are not to furnish them to purchasers at less than $10 the set, or $5 the Vol.
Walt Whitman
1. Whitman's dealings
with Trübner & Co. were handled through Josiah Child. See the
letter from Whitman to Child of August 9,
1878. On May 31, 1877, Trübner sent
Whitman $7.57 in payment for copies of Democratic
Vistas, and noted that 61 copies of that work were still on hand
(Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). On November 8 Whitman recorded that
Trübner owed him $70 for ten sets and "also something due me for Dem: Vistas." On December 6 he received $47.55 from
Trübner in payment for six sets and for fifteen (twelve according to
the letter from Whitman to Anne Gilchrist of December 12, 1878) copies of Democratic
Vistas; the balance due was $28 for four sets and $17.02 for
forty-six copies of Democratic Vistas.
Whitman received a payment from Trübner through Josiah Child on June 9,
1879, and an order for books. See the letter from Whitman to Child of June 9, 1879. Probably the payment amounted to
$24.50, since in making a tally of the books in Trübner's possession as
of June 27, he noted thirty-seven volumes (including thirty-six sent on June
25 or 27) and forty-six copies of Democratic Vistas.
On March 4, 1880, he received in payment $37.22; on July 22, 1880, $80.50,
at which time he sent thirty-four volumes; on March 4, 1881, $105.37, at
which time he sent an additional twenty volumes; and on December 8, 1881, he
received $80.50. At that time the balance due was $14.43 for thirty-nine
copies of Democratic Vistas. At a later date Whitman
added to this entry, "all paid in full" (Commonplace Book, Charles E.
Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library
of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]