The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: William Sloane Kennedy to Walt Whitman, 6 January 1890
Date: January 6, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03055
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: Kirby Little, Breanna Himschoot, Ian Faith, and Stephanie Blalock
 image 1 |  image 2 |
Boston. Post-office.
Noon. Jan. 6 1890.1
Am at Transcript office, permanent engagement as proof-reader. Have to read like lightning. Previous incumbent died of Influenza-pneumonia.
I get an extra copy of the paper laid on my desk every evening & so mail yours without breaking wrapper. Wd be very grateful for a card fr. you. Address me at Transcript Office any time, or Belmont
W. S. Kennedy.
Correspondent:
William Sloane Kennedy
(1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also
published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on
the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander
Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman,
in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse
indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was
"too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February
1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Jan | 8 | 6AM | 1890 | Rec'd. [back]