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Proposed Memorial
to the late
Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher.1
The memorial is restricted to the letters and literary
contributions of only a limited number of the most distinguished men and women
of America and Europe, and will be published in noteworthy form for presentation
to Mr. Beecher's family, and as a lasting record for his friends and the public.
EDWARD W. BOK,
Editor,
320 State Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.A.2
March 16th '87
Walt Whitman Esq.
Dear Sir,
It is the earnest desire of Mr. Beecher's friends that this memorial shall be in every
respect of the most representative character, and that this may be the more certain
of accomplishment, I beg to solicit your valuable cöoperation.
The memorial will take the form of estimates of Mr. Beecher's character and the great
public services rendered by him, and it is hoped to make it loc.01087.004_large.jpg
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character that it may ever remain a notable record of his life to be referred to in
future years by his family and his friends.
From promises and contributions received, the high character of the Memorial is
already assured, but we fully recognize the positive advantage it would receive by
some tribute from your pen. We are therefore particularly hopeful of a favorable
response at your hands, and this we most earnestly solicit.
As it is desired that the memorial be issued at as early a date as possible, may I
beg the further favor of as speedy a reply as may be practicable?3
Repeating our sincere hopes for your kind cooperation in this matter.
I am, Sir,
Very Respectfully
Edward W. Bok.
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Correspondent:
Eduard Willem Gerard Cesar
Hidde Bok (1863–1930), commonly known as Edward Bok, was a Dutch-American
author and newspaperman, and he served as editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for thirty years. Like Whitman, Bok had also
worked for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Notes
- 1. Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887), Congregational
clergyman and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, accepted the pastorate of the
Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, in 1847. Whitman described him briefly in the
Brooklyn Daily Advertiser of May 25, 1850, reprinted in
The Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman, 2
vols., ed. Emory Holloway (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page, 1921),
1:234–235. See also Walt Whitman, Emory Holloway, and Vernolian Schwarz,
I Sit and Look Out: Editorials from the Brooklyn Daily
Times (New York: Columbia University Press, 1955), 84–85, and
Horace Traubel, ed., With Walt Whitman in Camden, Friday, May 11, 1888. Henry Beecher's father, Lyman Beecher
(1775–1863), was also a clergyman, who upon his retirement lived with his
son in Brooklyn. [back]
- 2. This letter is addressed:
Walt Whitman, Esq., | Camden | New
Jersey. It is postmarked: Brooklyn, N.Y. | Mar 17 | 1030am | 87; Camden
[illegible] | Mar | 17 | 8pm | 1887 |
Rec'd. Bok has written "Personal" at the top of the front of the
envelope. [back]
- 3. Beecher
Memorial: Contemporaneous Tributes to the Memory of Henry Ward Beecher,
edited by Bok, was published in 1887; Whitman did not contribute to the volume,
and, if he ever replied to Bok, his letter is not extant. [back]