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Office of Davis & Ellsworth,
Civil Engineers and Surveyors.
CRAFTS' NEW BLOCK, HIGH STREET.
Edwin D. Davis,
Emory A. Ellsworth.
Holyoke, Mass
February 17Th 1876
Walt Whitman
Respected Sir:1
I began several years since the collection of the autographs of my favorite authors. As a lover of true poetry the
name of Walt Whitman is to me [illegible] as worthy than Longfellow2
and Bryan,t3 of [illegible]mbrance. I trust that you may find
[illegible]ination to grant this (to me) important [illegible]
Please if not too much to ask to [illegible] with a quotation from
your writings.—
Yours Very Respectfully
EA Ellsworth
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Correspondent:
Emory A. Ellsworth (1853–1915) was an 1871 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who went on to work as a civil engineer and architect.
He assisted with the construction of the Holyoke Water Works and served as the architect for what was at the time, the campus's Veterinary Lab.
Notes
- 1. Ellsworth's letter is partially
obscured by a square of newspaper that has been attached to the paper. The letter is struck
through, and Whitman used the back of this letter to write a draft of what would become
his March 6, 1876, letter to Bram Stoker. [back]
- 2. In his time, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(1807–1882) was both a highly popular and highly respected American poet.
His The Song of Hiawatha, published the same year as Leaves of Grass, enjoyed sales never reached by Whitman's
poetry. When Whitman met Longfellow in June 1876, he was unimpressed: "His
manners were stately, conventional—all right but all careful . . . he did
not branch out or attract" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman
in Camden, Thursday, May 10, 1888, 130). [back]
- 3. William Cullen Bryant
(1794–1878) was famous both as a poet and as the editor-in-chief of
the New York Evening Post from 1828 to 1878. [back]