431 Stevens st.
Camden New Jersey
June 8 '76
My dear Ward,1
I have rec'd your friendly & generous subscription, $50, for 5 sets of my Books, & thank you heartily.
I send by express to-day prepaid, three Volumes—one set complete, & a
Leaves of Grass—with some other little Vols—slips, duplicate engravings of self—&
a special Photo. prepared by my own hands (? for your studio)
As the very limited first issue of my new edition is about to be exhausted, your other sets will have to be delayed until a
further issue, now in press, is ready.
Walt Whitman
Please send me word if the package arrives safely—
Notes
- 1. Whitman wrote for the
first time to this distinguished American sculptor on April 12, 1876. Ward (1830–1910) was, according to Dictionary of American Biography, "the first native
sculptor to create, without benefit of foreign training, an impressive body of
good work." Ward informed Whitman on April 23,
1876, that on May 1, 1876, he would order five sets of the new
edition. The order was sent on June 1, 1876.
Whitman noted receipt of $50 from Ward on June 6, 1876 (Commonplace Book,
Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]