The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Maurice Minton to Walt Whitman, 2 April 1890
Date: April 2, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02343
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: Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Ian Faith, Alex Ashland, and Stephanie Blalock
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The Illustrated American.
Bible House, Astor Place,
New York, N. Y.
45 Rue Vivienne,
Paris.
142 Dearborn Street,
Chicago, Ill.
New York,
April 2 1890.1
Walt Whitman, Esq.
Dear Sir:—
We have asked a number of the most prominent bachelors in the country to answer the question "why am I a Bachelor?" with the purpose of publishing a symposium on the subject in an early number of "The Illustrated American."2
We should highly esteem a contribution from your pen, and the favor will be doubled if you can send it at your early convenience.
Yours very truly,
Maurice M. Minton
General Manager
A. L.
Correspondent:
Maurice Meyer Minton
(1859–1926) was a writer, politician, and editor, working as sports and
drama editor of the New York Telegram and managing editor
of the New York Herald. He founded The
Illustrated American in 1890 and was editor and owner until 1894;
Whitman appeared on the cover of the magazine in the April 19, 1890, issue. The
publication was a weekly photographic news magazine, published at the Bible
House, the headquarters of the American Bible Society, devoted to printing and
distributing millions of bibles. The Bible House was located in a large and
iconic cast iron building at Astor Place and East Ninth Street in New York City,
which housed several publishing businesses and was a center of intellectual and
literary activity.
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman, Esq. | Camden | N.J. The return address is: The Illustrated American, | Bible House, Astor Place, N.Y. | 142 Dearborn St., Chicago. It is postmarked: New York | Apr 2 | 630PM | D | 90; Camden, N.J. | Apr | [illegible] | 6 [illegible] | 9 [illegible] | [illegible]. [back]
2. For more on Whitman's response, as well as commentary on the poet's "bachelorhood," see Matt Cohen, "Walt Whitman, the Bachelor, and Sexual Politics," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, 1999, pp. 145–152. [back]