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H. D. Bush to Walt Whitman, 12 January 1892

About This Item

  • Title: H. D. Bush to Walt Whitman, 12 January 1892
  • Date: January 12, 1892
  • Creator(s): H. D. Bush
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.01105
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 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.
  • Contributors to digital file: Cristin Noonan Amanda J. Axley Erel Michaelis Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Bush, H. D.. "H. D. Bush to Walt Whitman, 12 January 1892." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 11 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.01105.xml (TEI)
 loc.01105.003_large.jpg 120 East 26th St. N.Y.1 Jan 12—'92 Dear Walt Whitman:

The '92 edition of Leaves of Grass2 which you thoughtfully sent us has arived and is an additional reminder of you, who have been so much in our thoughts of late. I will not weary you with a long letter, but say Don't give up the ship although "the prize is won"3

Thanking you for the book and with hearty love from both my wife and myself—

Faithfully yours H. D. Bush  loc.01105.004_large.jpg  loc.01105.001_large.jpg  loc.01105.002_large.jpg see notes Jan 13 1892 from H.D. Bush 120 East 26th St. N.Y.

Correspondent:
H. D. Bush was an engineer and inventor, specializing in bridge construction. He was associated with the Dominion Bridge Company and served as manager of the Baltimore Bridge Company. He worked on bridges in the American Northwest and then in New England, where he supervised structural engineering projects in Springfield, Massachusetts, then in Montreal. He served as the President of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was a friend of Horace Traubel's and a great admirer of Whitman and his work. He attended Whitman's final birthday dinner on May 31, 1891. He is mentioned numerous times in Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden, and Whitman greatly admired Bush, calling him a "noble fellow" and finding him one of "our men . . . the scientific men—men having a basis in sublime common sense" (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Monday, December 23, 1889).

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman, | Mickle St. | Camden, | New Jersey. It is postmarked: New York | Jan 13 | 930 AM | E; | 92; | Camden | Jan 13 | 4PM | 92 | Rec'd. [back]
  • 2. The 1891–1892 Leaves of Grass was copyrighted in 1891 and published by Phildelphia publisher David McKay in 1892. This volume, often referred to as the "deathbed" edition, reprints, with minor revisions, the 1881 text from the plates of Boston publisher James R. Osgood. Whitman also includes his two annexes in the book. The first annex, called "Sands at Seventy," consisted of sixty-five poems that had originally appeared in November Boughs (1888); while the second, "Good-Bye my Fancy," was a collection of thirty-one short poems taken from the gathering of prose and poetry published under that title by McKay in 1891, along with a prose "Preface Note to 2d Annex." Whitman concluded the 1891–92 volume with his prose essay "A Backward Glance o'er Travel'd Roads," which had originally appeared in November Boughs. For more information on this volume of Leaves, see R.W. French, "Leaves of Grass, 1891–1892, Deathbed Edition," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 3. Bush is echoing the second line of "O Captain! My Captain!": "The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won." [back]
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