Charles P. Somerby to Walt Whitman, 5 May 1875
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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.
139 Eighth STREET.
New York,
May 5, 18752
Mr. Walt Whitman,
Dear Sir:
It is very mortifying to me not to be in a position to send you even a small portion
of the balance your due. We are in a
much better locality for retail trade, and we hope to stir up a better mail trade by
a new list which we shall send out soon. But we cannot hope for anything very satisfactory,
considering the unprecedented stagnation in all business circles, for several weeks.
Assuming A.K.B. & Co.'s liabilities at such a time as this has made it very awkward
for me. I never was in debt before. The business would be unmixed pleasure to me were
my capital larger, as I think I can serve humanity better by distributing good books
than in any other way. The first opportunity 
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that can be made, something will be sent you. I regret the inability to
promptly settle more as I have understood you have never been paid by others who
kept your books on sale. There seems no reason to doubt a good business being done
here in a few weeks—in the early fall. I hope your health is improving. Many
persons ask us about you, and take a keen interest in your welfare. I regret that I
am not so situated as to be able to extend you an invitation to visit New York, and
offer you comfortable quarters here while you remain; but I do not "keep house"; have
no family; and I vibrate between New York and Brooklyn as to sleeping quarters, not
having any fixed habitation. Some one is compiling a book for the use of "Liberals"
at funerals, etc. I have called his attention to your poem on Death ("Dark mother,"
etc.),3 which I consider the finest ever written.
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Sept. 26 '75. C. P. Somerby
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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]
- 2. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | Camden | N.J. It is postmarked: New York | Sep 26 | 4:30PM. [back]
- 3. An elegy that mourns both personal and national loss, Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd" was composed only weeks after President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in April 1865. The poem first appeared in the 1871–1872 edition of Leaves of Grass under its original title. For more on the poem, see R. W. French, "'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' [1865]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]