The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to S.S. McClure, 4 December 1889
Date: December 4, 1889
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03108
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: Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Ryan Furlong, Brandon James O'Neil, and Stephanie Blalock
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328 Mickle Street
Camden New Jersey
Dec: 4 '89
Dear Sir
Can you use this poemet1 in your cluster?—It would probably do to go out just as well during the week immediately preceding Christmas—The price is $11 (ten for the little piece & one for printing the slips)—your notes rec'd:2 thank'd for, & I may send you something—
Respectfully
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Samuel Sidney McClure
(1857–1949) was the co-founder and editor of McClure's
Magazine. Well-known for its investigative journalism, the illustrated
monthly initially rejected Whitman's submissions and only posthumously published
some of his poetry (in 1897).
Notes:
1. Whitman is referring to the poem ultimately titled "A Christmas Greeting." In his December 3, 1889, letter to Richard Maurice Bucke the poet refers to the poem as "the little 'Northern Star-Group to a Southern' (welcome to Brazilian Republic)." This would become the poem's subtitle: "From a Northern Star-Group to a Southern. 1889–'90." See also "[A North Star]," a manuscript draft of this poem, in the Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. [back]
2. McClure had written to Whitman on December 3, 1889. [back]