James Arnold to Walt Whitman, 21 August 1876

 loc.01602.001_large_mflm.jpg James Arnold Blank Book Manufacturer No. 22 South Fifth St. 2nd floor. Philadelphia Aug 21 18761 Dear Sir

I have received the Bundles of Two Rivulets2 from New York.

I'll have not have the lettering cut until I get a copy bound up so as to get the correct width of the back—I send you a Box of Ninety Books to day by the Local express which makes up the first Hundred Leaves of Grass

Since your complaint of Gold looking bad on the title I have changed the leather and made an improvement as you will observe by the copy uncovered in the Box

Very Respecly​ Jas​ Arnold

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Notes

• 1. A line has been drawn through this letter in ink. [back]
• 2. Published as a "companion volume" to the 1876 Author's edition of Leaves of Grass, Two Rivulets consisted of an "intertwining of the author's characteristic verse, alternated throughout with prose," as one critic from the The New York Daily Tribune wrote on February 19, 1876 (4). For more information on Two Rivulets, see Frances E. Keuling-Stout, "Two Rivulets, Author's Edition [1876]" and "Preface to Two Rivulets [1876]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]