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Hiram Corson to Walt Whitman, 26 March 1886

About This Item

  • Title: Hiram Corson to Walt Whitman, 26 March 1886
  • Date: March 26, 1886
  • Creator(s): Hiram Corson
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.01336
  • 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: Alex Kinnaman Stefan Schöberlein Ian Faith Kyle Barton
  • Cite this page: Corson, Hiram. "Hiram Corson to Walt Whitman, 26 March 1886." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 09 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.01336.xml (TEI)
 loc.01336.001_large.jpg The Cornell University1 Ithaca, N.Y. 26 March, 1886. My dear Mr. Whitman:

Allow me to introduce to your acquaintance, my young friend, Mr. E. H. Woodruff, who desires the pleasure and honor of meeting you and exchanging a few words. Mr. Woodruff is one of your many lovers connected with our  loc.01336.002_large.jpg University, and I am sure it will be a proud satisfaction to him to meet you.2

I remember with great pleasure my visit to you last March, when I was on my way home from Johns Hopkins Univy.​ I brought, you will remember, a letter from Howard Furness.

I expect to be in Philada​ on the 1st, 2d and 3d of April, and to visit Mr. Furness;  loc.01336.003_large.jpg and I shall be much pleased if I can have the opportunity of again meeting you.

Hoping that you are enjoying good health.

I am, my dear Sir, Very truly yours. Hiram Corson

Walt Whitman Esq.

 loc.01336.004_large.jpg  loc.01336.005_large.jpg  loc.01336.006_large.jpg Hiram Corson see notes June 8/1888

Correspondent:
Hiram Corson (1828–1911) was a scholar of English literature from Philadelphia, where he taught at Girard College. While his studies focused mainly on canonical British texts (Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc.), Corson would also give public readings of Whitman's verse.

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman Esq. | Camden, N.J. | Introducing | Mr. E.H. Woodruff. [back]
  • 2. Edwin H. Woodruff (1863–1941), then a member of the staff of the Cornell University Library, was introduced to the poet by Hiram Corson in a letter of March 26, 1886. Two days later he was in Camden (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Earlier, on June 4, 1882, Woodruff had sent Whitman a poem written under his influence and printed in the Cornell Era. Later Woodruff became a professor of law and was dean of the Cornell Law School from 1916 to 1921. See Cornell University, Faculty. Necrology of the Faculty, 1941–1942, 5–7. [back]
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