John Hay to Walt Whitman, 22 July 1876

About This Item

Title: John Hay to Walt Whitman, 22 July 1876
Date: July 22, 1876
Creator(s): John Hay
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01728
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 Elizabeth Lorang Ashley Lawson Eder Jaramillo John Schwaninger Caterina Bernardini Amanda J. Axley Erel Michaelis Stephanie Blalock
Cite this page: Hay, John. "John Hay to Walt Whitman, 22 July 1876." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 11 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.01728.xml (TEI)

loc.01728.001_large_mflm.jpg see notes Apr 22 1888 CENTURY CLUB 109 EAST 15TH STREET July 22. Dear Mr. Whitman papers sent July 25

I thank you heartily for my share in your Custer poem,1 which I have just read. It is splendidly strong and sustained and full of a noble motive. I am especially glad to learn, in such an authoritative way, of your health and vigor.

I wish you would loc.01728.002_large_mflm.jpg take the trouble to let me know when your volume of collected works is to be published and where I can subscribe for it. I have heard that it was to be published by subscription, but have not heard any further details.

My address is now 506 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, and I would be loc.01728.003_large_mflm.jpg very much obliged if you would spend a moment in letting me know how to get an early copy of the book for which many are looking.

Yours faithfully John Hay

loc.01728.004_large_mflm.jpg July 25 '76 Letter from John Hay (Custer poem) slips & paper sent him July 25

Correspondent:
John Hay (1838–1905) was Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and a historian as well as Secretary of State under Theodore Roosevelt. Hay praised Whitman's "A Death-Sonnet for Custer" (later entitled "From Far Dakota's Cañons") when it appeared in the New York Daily Tribune on July 10, 1876. Whitman sent the 1876 Centennial Edition of Leaves of Grass to Hay on August 1, 1876 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.).

Notes

1. Submitted to Whitelaw Reid on July 7, 1876, A Death-Sonnet for Custer" (later entitled "From Far Dakota's Cañons") appeared in the New York Daily Tribune on July 10, 1876. Whitman acknowledged receipt of $10 in a July 18, 1876, letter to Reid. [back]