The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Dr. Ferdinand Seeger to Walt Whitman, 18 April 1876
Date: April 18, 1876
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01918
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, Eder Jaramillo, John Schwaninger, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Caterina Bernardini, Marie Ernster, Erel Michaelis, Amanda J. Axley, and Stephanie Blalock
 image 1 |  image 2 |  image 3 |  image 4 |  image 5 |  image 6 |  image 7 |
708 Lex Ave1
N.Y.
Apl 18 1876
My dear sir
Enclosed please find Money order for Five of 100 Dollars for a copy of Two Rivulets,2 which please send to my address & to my name
This subscription is from a lady client of mine
yours &c.
F. Seeger
Since writing my note I have secured the promise of one subscription & possibly with it 2 more
In my copy, would solicit the pleasure of having your autograph signature on fly leaf.
Correspondent:
Dr. Ferdinand Seeger (1848–1923) was a
homeopathic physician from New York City and the founder of Hahnemann Hospital.
He once refused the Democratic nomination for mayor in order to focus on his medical practice. He was known
for his efforts to treat both wealthy and destitute patients ("Ferdinand Seeger, M.D.," Journal
of the American Institute of Homeopathy 15 (April 1923), 956). See also the obituary for Seeger
as printed in the March
10, 1923, issue of Time magazine). Seeger sent an additional
check for $5 on April 18, 1876, and Walt Whitman
forwarded two volumes on April 21, 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. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | Camden | N. Jersey. It is postmarked: New York | Apr 19 | 7 AM. [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]