The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: John Hay to Walt Whitman, 22 July 1876
Date: July 22, 1876
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.
Editorial notes: The annotations, "papers sent July 25," and "July 25 '76 Letter from John Hay (Custer poem) slips & paper sent him July 25," are in the hand of Walt Whitman. The annotation, "see notes Apr 22 1888," is in the hand of Horace Traubel.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman, Elizabeth Lorang, Ashley Lawson, Eder Jaramillo, John Schwaninger, Caterina Bernardini, Amanda J. Axley, Erel Michaelis, and Stephanie Blalock
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CENTURY CLUB
109 EAST 15TH STREET
July 22.
Dear Mr. Whitman
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 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 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
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]