The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: William Sloane Kennedy to Walt Whitman, 15 September 1890
Date: September 15, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03083
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, Ryan Furlong, Ian Faith, and Stephanie Blalock
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Mond. morn.1
R. R. Sta.
7.20:—
Yr card rec'd
Excuse me—I rec'd the memoranda2 & have worked them all in of course.
I hd already arranged to have 25 slips taken. No expense to you or me.—
affec
W. S. K.
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 postal card is addressed Walt Whitman | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: Boston Mass | Sep 15 | 9 30A | 1890; Camden, N.J. | Sep 16 | 9am | 1890 | Rec'd. [back]
2. Kennedy was writing a piece on Whitman's "Dutch traits" and had asked Whitman for some notes; see Whitman's letter to Kennedy of August 29, 1890. [back]