John Newton Johnson to Walt Whitman, 3 April [1875]
loc_tb.00749.jpg
[illegible]
Bluff Home
April 3 1875
Walt Whitman
[illegible]—oo
big date man up dear oo
dood [illegible] Poet what name like me!
me write oo [illegible] letter—it
sall be "fresh and modern" [illegible]
me is Modern Man, ony bout
four five monfs old—but me is not "Average Man"—oo
tall me Average Man, oo lie!—Average
Man is blame rascal—him not wuf pickin
up in de road if him be tannin tip-toe!
May-be if oo work him ober
free four times, him be wuf sumtin —but
way him is now, him teal , him cheat, him beg, him tell lies—but
me is fine ittle "secesh," tuf
boy man—me "boo bood "! me dot
penty bood
F. F. V.,1—me not teal —me
not cheat—me not beg—me not tell lies—back lies
[illegible] white lies" is all back to me—me
ittle [illegible]es man bout
dat —maybe me is ittle [illegible] foolish bout
dat , but when me say yes it be yes and when me say no it be no—dats
p[illegible] fun sometime but me
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tant help it—me will [illegible]
to some "white lies" [illegible] fun [illegible]
some nice Poetry. But [illegible] do dem
dear fings ,
me tan fight and [illegible]
tanfoun
de back -heart bobolitions !
[illegible] wooly head niggers! what
em dood
for but [illegible] torn and totton for chibalry
white mans?
Uncle Walt: me is been treat bad—papa not gib me no name 'till me mos'
free monfs old—him not
like name him babys for live mans—him
faid live mans do bad fings
and make babies shamed—but me fink
oo neber do no bad
fings , man what talk dood like
oo wont
neber do no bad
fings —papa not like bobolitions
neider , but may-be oo not bobolitions ,
may-be oo ony make-believe,
may-be ony also dust in [illegible]
of dem bobolitions roun bout
oo , for fatter em, and rake in
der money, (dat [illegible]
money [illegible] de Tariff teal
from dood [illegible] mans gib
to back -heart bobolitions [illegible]
dat case
[illegible], me say "go head Uncle Walt
fatter
em [illegible] fatter
em , an'
fatter em
[illegible] big pile money
from em '—den oo
[illegible] here
loc_tb.00752.jpg
afer oo f[illegible]
dat line, an' build dood
house on [illegible] top an'
me an' oo will
[illegible] togedder
[illegible] laugh to de old
bobolitions bout how
oo [illegible]
em out of der
money—den
we put [illegible] my boo flag) on top our
house an' [illegible]
fap , an' fap ,
an' fap —an'
we will bin big fiddles
too, for play Dixie! Den if noder
war tomes we will be taptains
of Ku Klux banditti, an' me go east, an'
oo go west, an' we will clean out all
bobolitions an'
wooly head niggers. Tause
me is dood
fightin tock ;
me fight bery well
when me dot no place for run to; me hunt for last ditch,
but if em catch me fore me get
dere ,
me will say me is old womans![no handwritten text supplied here]But Uncle Walt: me
dont know if me wants
see oo —tomebody say
oo not talk much
tomebody say oo let
oder folks do mos
talking—what oo dat way for?
ittle secesh man
tould me [illegible] dat
long wid oo
dat way—him mighty [illegible] talk, but him
fink ittle bit
first, but [illegible] not see much books, him [illegible] lazy
farmer
[illegible], him not dot big pile
books, nor fine [illegible]
fine close , nor big money
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ittle secesh man ony dot
mos [illegible]
dood sense, sheriff
brave heart, an' ittle
[illegible].
What for oo want see
ittle [illegible] man? Does
oo want hug him neck?
does oo want hold him
by him hand? Uncle Walt: [illegible] oo
mus' not be tongue-tied.—
Me is not been sick none, ony de tolic , till me four monfs old—den big ittle boy take me in wind an' me hab told an' feber free days, but me tonquer him—what for me dot "gymnastic" mudder if me tant tonquer told an' feber ? me bully ittle boy—any ittle Jersey-boo-coat boy say "union" to me me tan whip him quicker'n him Banner an' Pennant tan say "fap ," "fap ," "fap "—oo bet!
Me not want presents what money tan buy—oo mus gib dat sort to oder ittle Walt Whitmans—but oo mus gib [illegible] love to ittle secesh mans. Now, me [illegible] me name
Walt Whitman XX≠IIXXOh! me pile him something [illegible] may be him [illegible] dood nuff .
The2 Amana[illegible] one need wish to see. He has been so idle or lazy [illegible] destitute of acquired knowledge that about [illegible] of paper would suffice to [illegible] him [illegible] of "Philosophy" and Wit.
Correspondent:
John Newton Johnson
(1832–1904) was a colorful and eccentric self-styled philosopher from
rural Alabama. There are about thirty letters from Johnson in the Charles E.
Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919 (Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.), but unfortunately there are no replies extant,
although Whitman wrote frequently for a period of approximately fifteen years.
When Johnson wrote for the first time on August 13,
1874, he was forty-two, "gray as a rat," as he would say in another
letter from September 13, 1874: a former Rebel
soldier with an income between $300 and $400 annually, though before the
war he had been "a slaveholding youthful 'patriarch.'"
He informed Whitman in the August 13, 1874, letter
that during the past summer he had bought Leaves of Grass
and, after a momentary suspicion that the bookseller should be "hung for swindling," he discovered the mystery of
Whitman's verse, and "I assure you I was soon 'cavorting' round and asserting
that the $3 book was worth $50 if it could not be replaced, (Now
Laugh)." He offered either to sell Whitman's poetry and turn over to him all
profits or to lend him money. On October 7, 1874,
after describing Guntersville, Alabama, a town near his farm from which he often
mailed his letters to Whitman, he commented: "Orthodoxy flourishes with the usual lack of
flowers or fruit." See
also Charles N. Elliot, Walt Whitman as Man, Poet and
Friend (Boston: R. G. Badger, 1915), 125–130.