The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Charles P. Somerby to Walt Whitman, 16 April 1875
Date: April 16, 1875
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01933
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, Kevin McMullen, Ashley Lawson, John Schwaninger, Caterina Bernardini, Marie Ernster, Noelle Bates, Amanda J. Axley, Jeff Hill, and Stephanie Blalock
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AGENTS
for all
Free Thought Publications
in
RELIGION, AND POLITICAL
Social and Natural Science.
CHARLES P. SOMERBY,1
Publishers, Booksellers and Importers.
36 DEY STREET.
New York,
Mch. 16. 1875
Mr. Whitman,
Dear Sir,
We are in receipt of your letter and regret, exceedingly, that we [are?] unable to remit the amount you name at present. We have been unable to collect, and our statements of last month have failed to bring us in a quarter of what is due. This is only a temporary embarrassment but it places us in an unpleasant position for the time.
We hope to be able to forward the amount due you soon and will certainly do so at our earliest possible oppor[tunity?]
We hope to visit Philadelphia soon and will not fail to call upon you. Hoping that our failure to raise the money will not inconvenience you [seriously?]
We remain
Yours very Sincerely
C. P. Somerby
Correspondent:
Charles P. Somerby was one of the book dealers whom
Walt Whitman termed "embezzlers." In 1875, Somerby assumed the liabilities of
Butts & Co.; see Whitman's February 4, 1874,
letter to Asa K. Butts & Company. This proved to be a matter of
embarrassment to Somerby, who, in reply to a lost letter on March 16, 1875, was
unable "to remit the amount you name at present." On May
5, 1875, he wrote: "It is very mortifying to me not to be in a
position to send you even a small portion of the balance your due." On October 4, 1875, Somerby sent $10—his
only cash payment: "Have made every exertion to raise the $200 you require,
and find it utterly impossible to get it. . . . We had hoped that you would
accept our offer to get out your new book, and thus more than discharge our
indebtedness to you." On April 19, 1876, Somerby
reported that "I have been losing, instead of gaining." On May 6, 1876, he sent Whitman a statement
pertaining to some volumes; on May 12, 1876, he
included a complete financial statement: in eighteen months he had made only one
cash payment, and owed Walt Whitman $215.17. The firm was still unable to
make a payment on September 28, 1876. In August
1877, Whitman received a notice of bankruptcy dated August 8, 1877,
from, in his
own words, "assignee [Josiah Fletcher, an attorney] of the rascal Chas P.
Somerby." These manuscripts are in The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Notes:
1. A stamp of Charles P. Somerby's name has been superimposed over the original company name on this stationery. The stationery was formerly for Asa K. Butts & Co. In the mid-1870s, Butts tried to help Whitman procure legal counsel during the poet's difficulties with book agents who allegedly embezzled from him. In 1875, Somerby assumed the liabilities of Butts & Co.; see Whitman's February 4, 1874, letter to Asa K. Butts & Company. [back]