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



page image
image 1
page image
image 2


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]


Comments?

Published Works | In Whitman's Hand | Life & Letters | Commentary | Resources | Pictures & Sound

Support the Archive | About the Archive

Distributed under a Creative Commons License. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price, editors.