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White Hall, Ky.1
Jan. 6. 1891
Dear Sir,
I have just received your "Leaves of Grass &c." 1890—for which accept my
thanks.
I have not found time but to glance over it—& cannot return a
criticism—even if such a thing was a consequence.
I am very independent in such matters—and think with Burns2
"Cruing to a body's sel Does weel enough"3
& let the world read or not, as it likes.4
—Wishing you long years yet of health and happiness. I remain yours
truly
Cassius Marcellus Clay
Walt Whitman Esq.
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see | notes | April 1st | 1891
White Hall Ky | 1—8—91
328 | Mickle St Camden N.J.
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Correspondent:
Cassius Marcellus Clay
(1810–1903), often referred to as "Lion of the White Hall," was an
abolitionist and a politician from Kentucky. In the early 1860s, he was
appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to serve as the United States minister to
Russia.
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Walt Whitman Esq. | Care of Ferguson Bros. & Co. | Esqrs. | Philadelphia ; |
Pennsylvania. It is postmarked: Philadelp[illegible] | Jan10 | 11AM | 91; Camden, N.J. | Jan | 10 | [illegible]M | [illegible]D; Received [illegible] | Jan | 3 | [illegible]PM | [illegible] | Phila. On the lower
left Clay has written: "White Hall: | ky. | C. [illegible] Clay." [back]
- 2. Robert Burns (1759–1796) was widely regarded
as Scotland's national poet. An early Romantic poet who wrote in both Scots and
English (often though not exclusively inflected by Scottish dialect), Burns is
perhaps best known for his poems "Auld Lang Syne," "Tam o' Shanter" and "To a
Mouse" (from which the title of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and
Men is derived). Of Burns, Whitman wrote in November
Boughs: "Though so much is to be said in the way of fault-finding,
drawing black marks, and doubtless severe literary criticism . . . after full
retrospect of his works and life, the aforesaid 'odd-kind chiel' remains to my
heart and brain as almost the tenderest, manliest, and (even if contradictory)
dearest flesh-and-blood figure in all the streams and clusters of by-gone
poets." For Whitman's full opinion of Burns as it appeared in November Boughs, see "Robert Burns as Poet and Person," November Boughs (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1888),
57–64. [back]
- 3. The lines are from Robert
Burns's "Epistle to J. Lapraik": "Yet crooning to a body's sel / Does weel
eneugh." [back]
- 4. Whitman found Clay's note
"pugnacious" and told Horace Traubel, after reading it, that "I am the target
for missiles good and bad—numberless missiles, from friends and enemies"
(With Walt Whitman in Camden, Wednesday, April 1, 1891). [back]