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S. S. McClure to Walt Whitman, 3 December 1889

 loc.03107.001.jpg Dear Sir:

Bishop Potter1 suggests that a short letter giving your ideas how best "To lift, how little howsoe'er, the hearts of toilers struggling here," would perhaps be a better idea than the one suggested in my previous letter. I should like to hear from you in response to either of these questions. A letter of one hundred words would perhaps be sufficiently long for this purpose.

Very truly yours, S. S. McClure  loc.03107.002.jpg

Correspondent:
Samuel Sidney McClure (1857–1949) was an investigative journalist who in 1884 established the first newspaper syndicate in the United States, which occasionally solicited and published work by Whitman; later, he co-founded McClure's Magazine, which published work by Whitman posthumously.


Notes

  • 1. Henry Codman Potter (1834–1908) was Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and a venerated religious and civic leader who devoted much of his ministry to what he called "the problem of the poor"; he also was well known for his efforts to support the interests of labor and labor unions. [back]
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