The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to the Editor of The Critic, 25 November 1890
Date: November 25, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01418
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, Marie Ernster, and Stephanie Blalock
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Camden N J1
Nov: 25 '90
Wonder whether you care for this ¶ for y'r announcem'ts?2
—Whitman
The late Wm D. O'Connor,3 of Washington, D.C. left unpublished the MS: of "the Brazen Android," a tale, which with other new and some other stories including "the Carpenter" will be issued in book form. It is to have a brief prefatory note by Walt Whitman.4
Correspondent:
The editor of the Critic from 1881 to 1906 was Jeannette Leonard Gilder
(1849–1916), who wrote that "one of the things of which I am most proud is
that the Critic was the first publication of its class to
invite Walt Whitman to contribute to its pages" (Charles N. Elliot, Walt Whitman as Man, Poet, and Friend [Boston: Richard G.
Badger, The Gorham Press, 1915], 97). She was assisted in her editorial work by
her brother Joseph Benson Gilder (1858–1936). For more information, see
Susan L. Roberson, "Gilder, Jeannette L. (1849–1916)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. This postal card is addressed: Editor Critic | 52 Lafayette Place | New York City. It is postmarked: CAMDEN, N.J. | NOV 25 | 430PM | 90 [back]
2. A paragraph on Whitman's recent activities, including his writing a preface for O'Connor's book, appeared in The Critic (November 29, 1891), 282. [back]
3. William Douglas O'Connor (1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866. For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
4. At the behest of Ellen O'Connor, Houghton, Mifflin & Company published a collection that included three of her late husband William Douglas O'Connor's stories and a preface by Whitman. Three Tales: The Ghost, The Brazen Android, The Carpenter was published in 1892. [back]