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John Hay to Walt Whitman, 22 March [1892]

 loc.02309.003_large.jpg Dear Walt Whitman

Have you a copy of the Centennial Edition2 of your Poems you could let me have—or any edition with your autograph? I want it very much for a friend.

Do not send the cheque back even if you have not the book.

Can I be of any service to you? if so you need only command me.

Yours affectionately John Hay  loc.02309.004_large.jpg  loc.02309.005_large.jpg  loc.02309.006_large.jpg  loc_tb.00035.jpg If not delivered3 in 5 days | return to 800—16th St. | Washington D. C. see notes Mar 24 1892  loc_tb.00036.jpg

Correspondent:
John Hay (1838–1905) was Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and a historian as well as Secretary of State under Theodore Roosevelt. Hay praised Whitman's "A Death-Sonnet for Custer" (later entitled "From Far Dakota's Cañons") when it appeared in the New York Daily Tribune on July 10, 1876. Whitman sent the 1876 Centennial Edition of Leaves of Grass to Hay on August 1, 1876 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.).


Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | Poet | Camden Town | New Jersey. It is postmarked: WASHINGTON, D. C. | MAR 22 | 4-PM | 1892; CAMDEN, N.J. | MAR23 | 6AM | 92 | RECD. This letter arrived three days before Whitman's death on March 26, 1892. [back]
  • 2. During America's centennial celebration in 1876, Whitman, reissued the fifth edition of Leaves of Grass in the repackaged form of a "Centennial Edition" and "Author's Edition," with each copy personally signed by Whitman. Around the same time, Whitman also brought out, as part of the nation's centennial celebration, his Two Rivulets, an experiment in prose and poetry, with (in the first section of the book) poetry printed at the top of the page and separated by a wavy line from the stream of prose at the bottom of each page. For more information on these books, see Frances E. Keuling-Stout, "Leaves of Grass, 1876, Author's Edition" and "Two Rivulets, Author's Edition [1876]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 3. Hay wrote this return address information in the top left corner on the front side of the envelope. [back]
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