William D. O'Connor to Walt Whitman, 28 August 1882

 loc.03064.001_large.jpg Washington, D.C. August 28/82. Dear Walt:

I have your postal card of yesterday. I send you a Tribune of Sunday, as I see by your card that up to afternoon, you had not seen it. On the 5th page is my touch at Comstock. I hope it will do you good.

The editor printed it just as I wrote it except the  loc.03064.002_large.jpg opening sentence, which read: "Mr. Anthony Comstock's hostility to the nude—of which an illustrious instance was his famous prosecution of three unfortunate women, whom he had hired to dance before him for over an hour, without clothing, in a New York brothel—appears to extend to even the naked truth." The mild  loc.03064.003_large.jpg editor has spared Teufelsdröckh the bloody stripe this sarcasm would have left upon him, by excising the sentence. But he gets enough. The vagabond.

Now for Tobey! I wish I were not so driven with work, and felt well. I have been much played out this summer, especially the last month.

Glad to hear your prose book is so well advanced loc.03064.004_large.jpg and that the third edition of the "Leaves" is flying out. Rees Welsh & Co must take care not to get left, but have the books on hand, for I think by September we shall have a boom in full drive. I will do my best to keep up the controversy.

Tucker has fairly cowed Stevens & Co in Boston. My private advices are very amusing. Pity Osgood was such a craven, though better for you.

Faithfully W.D.O'C. Walt Whitman.