Sampson Low and Company to Walt Whitman, 28 March 1873

 loc.01897.001_large.jpg Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle. English, Foreign, American, and Colonial Booksellers and Publishers. Commisions executed in all matters connected with International Copyright, both at Home and Abroad. For the Advancement of Learning. THE PUBLISHERS' CIRCULAR. Established 1837. THE PUBLISHERS' CIRCULAR, AND GENERAL RECORD OF BRITISH AND FORGEIGN LITERATURE, Is published by SAMPSON LOW and CO. on the 1st and 15th of each  
 Month. It gives a transcript of the Title-page of every Work  
 published in Great Britain, and every Work of interest  
 published abroad. 8s. per annum,  
 including postage. London, 188, Fleet Street "Crown Buildings." Mar: 28th [torn-away]3 Walt Whitman Esq Solr's​ off.​ Treasury Washington D.C. Dear Sir

We are in receipt of Mr J. S. Redfield's1 favour of the 12th ult​ requesting the transference of his interest in your books in our hands to yourself, and we accordingly hand herewith memo.​ of Sales, to Dec​ 31 last together with our draft on Messrs Seribron Wellwood & Co for the amount due of—$17.10—

We are Dear sir Yours faithfully Sampson Low & Co  loc.01897.002.jpg March, 1873 Sampson Low & Co. acc't.

 loc.01897.003_large.jpg 7/550 Crown Buildings. London, 188, Fleet Street. Mr J.S. Redfield in a/c​ with Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle. 1872 Dec 31

By Amt.​ as per your a/c​ 112 50 less Goods on hand

48 Whitmans Vistas2	.45	21 60
41 "Leaves Grass"	1.80	73 80	95 40
			$17.10

To Walt Whitman Esq Solictors​ Office Treasury Washington D.C.  loc.01897.004_large.jpg

Notes

• 1.

  James S. Redfield, a publisher at 140 Fulton Street, New York, was a distributor of Whitman's books in the early 1870s. On March 23, 1872, Redfield accepted 496 copies of Leaves of Grass: "I am to account to him (for all that I may sell) at the rate of One Dollar & Fifty Cents a copy, (1.50)" (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). When Whitman prepared his will on October 23, 1872, he noted that Redfield had 500 copies of the fifth edition of Leaves of Grass, 400 copies of As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free, and 500 copies of Democratic Vistas (The Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library). Redfield later established a London outlet for Democratic Vistas and Leaves of Grass with Sampson, Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, who, on March 28, 1873, transferred Redfield's account for the remaining books to Whitman. On February 12, 1875, when his firm was in bankruptcy, Redfield noted that the balance due Walt Whitman ($63.45) "will have to go in with my general indebtedness. I think my estate will pay 50 cents on the dollar: hope so at any rate." He suggested that Michael Doolady (bookseller and publisher who printed Ada Clare's 1866 book Only a Woman's Heart; mentioned in Whitman's October 13, 1867, letter to Dionysius Thomas and Whitman's November 13, 1867, letter to Doolady) and the new Boston firm of Estes & Lauriat might agree to handle his books. He noted, however, that most book dealers were unwilling to sell Whitman's books, either because of inadequate sales or because of the poet's reputation in respectable circles: "It is only here and there a speckled sheep, like J. S. R., turns up who—not to put too fine a point upon it—don't care a d--n for Mrs Grundy, who would take you in."

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• 2. Whitman's Democratic Vistas was first published in 1871 in New York by J.S. Redfield. The volume was an eighty-four-page pamphlet based on three essays, "Democracy," "Personalism," and "Orbic Literature," all of which Whitman intended to publish in the Galaxy magazine. Only "Democracy" and "Personalism" appeared in the magazine. For more information on Democratic Vistas, see Arthur Wrobel, "Democratic Vistas [1871]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]