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Abraham Simpson to Walt Whitman, 10 May 1867

About This Item

  • Title: Abraham Simpson to Walt Whitman, 10 May 1867
  • Date: May 10, 1867
  • Creator(s): Abraham Simpson
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.01924
  • 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 Kathryn Kruger Ashley Lawson Nima Najafi Kianfar John Schwaninger Caterina Bernardini Amanda J. Axley Cristin Noonan Kassie Jo Baron Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Simpson, Abraham. "Abraham Simpson to Walt Whitman, 10 May 1867." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 03 May 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.01924.xml (TEI)
 loc.01924.007_large.jpg New York Medical Journal, 18 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK, May 10 1867.1 Walt Whitman Esq Dear Sir

I am about to go into business in a few days; and hearing you are writing another book would like to print and publish it for you and will give you better advantages than any other publishing house.2 If you think favorably of it will you write me what time you think it will be ready when I will commence to advertise it in some journals I now control—gratis. It being my first efforts at publishing, I would make extraordinary efforts to have an extensive sale.

One of my reasons for securing  loc.01924.008_large.jpg your friendship is my appreciation for you as a man, well knowing your life has been devoted to help along those most in need of your assistance. I being about to make a start know you will if possible give me a helping hand. I shall take the liberty of enclosing a card3 as soon as my arrangement for location is completed.

Hoping you will confer a favor on me by replying

I beg to remain, Yours very truly, Abrm Simpson  loc.01924.005_large.jpg Abrm Simpson May 10 '67. ans. May 20. (ans. enclosed)  loc.01924.006_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Abraham Simpson, while working for J. M. Bradstreet & Son, had supervised the binding of Drum-Taps (see Whitman's May 2, 1865, letter to Peter Eckler). Simpson wrote on May 10, 1867, that he was going into business for himself and was interested in publishing Whitman's next book: "Hearing you are writing another book [I] would like to print and publish it for you and will give you better advantages than any other publishing house . . . One of my reasons for securing your friendship is my appreciation for you as a man, well knowing your life has been devoted to help along those most in need of your assistance." On May 31, 1867, Simpson informed Whitman that "we have established a Ptng & Publishing House." But, in his July 3, 1867, letter, he advised Whitman that after consultation "with several eminent literary men . . . though we are favorably impressed, . . . we deem it injudicious to commit ourselves to its publication at the present time."

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman Esq | Washington | D.C. It is postmarked: NEW YORK | MAY | 10; CARRIER | MAY | 11 | 1 Del. [back]
  • 2. In 1866, Dr. William A. Hammond (1828–1900), F. S. Hoffman, and "Abe" Simpson joined with B. W. Bond (of the publishing firm Moorhead, Simpson & Bond) to form the Agathynian Club, which printed both original works and reprints with an interest in typographical innovation. The Club produced periodicals, as well as reprints of rare, curious, and old American, English, French, and Latin books (American Literary Gazette and Publishers Circular [Philadelphia: George W. Childs, Publisher, No. 600 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, July 1, 1867], 9:136). While preparing the Agathynian Club's second volume, a fire destroyed the Bradstreet book-bindery, all 150 copies of the Club's second volume, and by extension the Club itself, which folded in 1868 when Hammond elected to focus on his medical practice. For more information on the Club, see Adolf Growell, "The Agathynian Club (1866–1868)," American Book Clubs: Their Beginnings and History, and a Bibliography of their Publications (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1897), 145–151. [back]
  • 3. Whitman replied on May 20, 1867, and he informed Simpson that he was not then writing a new book. Instead, Whitman noted that he was working on a "new & far more perfected edition of Leaves of Grass." The promised card has not as yet been discovered, but based on Whitman's reply, Simpson may not have sent it. [back]
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