Walt Whitman to Mr. and Mrs. Harned, 7 November [1887?]

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Mr. and Mrs. Harned, 7 November [1887?]
Date: November 7, 1887
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02267
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.

Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Ashland Stefan Schöberlein Caterina Bernardini Stephanie Blalock
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Mr. and Mrs. Harned, 7 November [1887?]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 09 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.02267.xml (TEI)

loc.02267.001_large.jpg Nov. 7 1½ p m1 Mr: and Mrs: Harned Dear friends

I send the two tickets for the lecture—Also a little book for Anna. Also a programme of Donnelly's2 "Cipher" Book—curious to look over.

—Also your Sunday Tribune wh' I pilfered last night—also a couple of Critics—enjoyed a happy three hours last night & am all the better for it to-day—

W W

loc.02267.002_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Thomas Biggs Harned (1851–1921) was one of Whitman's literary executors. Harned was a lawyer in Philadelphia and, having married Augusta Anna Traubel, was Horace Traubel's brother-in-law. For more on him, see Dena Mattausch, "Harned, Thomas Biggs (1851–1921)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).

Notes

1. The year of 1887 appears to be a plausible date since November 7 fell on Monday in that year. [back]
2. Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (1831–1901) was a politician and writer, well known for his notions of Atlantis as an antediluvian civilization and for his belief that Shakespeare's plays had been written by Francis Bacon, an idea he argued in his book The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon's Cipher in Shakespeare's Plays, published in 1888. The "programme" referred to here was probably an announcement of the publication of that book. [back]