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William Sloane Kennedy to Walt Whitman, 20 September 1891

About This Item

  • Title: William Sloane Kennedy to Walt Whitman, 20 September 1891
  • Date: September 20, 1891
  • Creator(s): William Sloane Kennedy
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.03166
  • 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: Cristin Noonan Amanda J. Axley Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Kennedy, William Sloane. "William Sloane Kennedy to Walt Whitman, 20 September 1891." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 23 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.03166.xml (TEI)
 loc.03166.001_large.jpg Sunday Eve 7 1/2 oc1 Sept—20 '91 Belmont Mass. Dear Poet:

I hope you dont think my love and thought of W. W the less for my not writing oftener. Somehow I have rather a dislike to it. I had a little note fr. Burroughs2 in a basket of grapes he sent me. I have been editorializing (big business!(over the left)) a little lately—editorials on "Dynamite Weather," and "A Big American Flag" (incident of flowers let fall from folds of big unfurling flag at Springfield). You may have noticed, too, verses to J.B. & Marryat3 article.

We have passed quietly, & happily thro' the summer (Dont you, dear cripple, long for that never to return buoyancy of youth—the elastic giant-strong days of youth, sometimes? But never mind, each stage of life has its glories)

My sister from Ohio is with us today.4 She has room with friends in Boston, & is to study at the Art School this year. I see Lowelliana5 continue to pour forth. Baxter6 gave me yr. message.7 Accept my hearty love & affectionate good wishes. Shd be glad of one of those nice little bulletin cards from you. I got so used to them. I feel desolate without them. There was'nt​ much of the hero or pioneer in Lowell—but yet he was precious for pure character, manly probity of life & humor.

W S Kennedy  loc.03166.002_large.jpg  loc.03166.003_large.jpg  loc.03166.004_large.jpg

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 letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: BELMONT | SEP | 21 | 1891 | MASS.; CAMDEN, N.J. | SEP2[illegible] | 9AM | 91 | RECD. [back]
  • 2. Kennedy is referring to the naturalist John Burroughs (1837–1921), who met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a lifelong correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman. However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged, curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs, see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 3. Frederick Marryat (1792–1848) was a novelist, Royal Navy Officer, and a friend of the British novelist Charles Dickens. Marryat is known for such works as the novel Mr. Midshipman Easy (1836) and a children's novel titled The Children of the New Forest (1847). [back]
  • 4. Mary (Mayme) Kennedy Foote (1858–1933) was the daughter of Rev. William Sloane Kennedy and his wife Sarah Elizabeth (Woodruff) Kennedy, and she was the younger sister of Whitman's friend and defender William Sloane Kennedy (1850–1929). Mary Kennedy was married to DeVillo C. Foote (1854–1927), a salesman who sold weather strips. The couple lived in Ohio. [back]
  • 5. Kennedy is referring to works related to James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), an American critic, poet, and editor of The Atlantic who had died a month prior to this letter. One of Whitman's famous poetic contemporaries, Lowell was committed to conventional poetic form, which was clearly at odds with Whitman's more experimental form. Still, as editor of the Atlantic Monthly, he published Whitman's "Bardic Symbols," probably at Ralph Waldo Emerson's suggestion. Lowell later wrote a tribute to Abraham Lincoln titled "Commemoration Ode," which has often, since its publication, been contrasted with Whitman's own tribute, "O Captain! My Captain!" For further information on Whitman's views of Lowell, see William A. Pannapacker, "Lowell, James Russell (1819–1891)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 6. Sylvester Baxter (1850–1927) was on the staff of the Boston Herald. Apparently he met Whitman for the first time when the poet delivered his Lincoln address in Boston in April, 1881; see Rufus A. Coleman, "Whitman and Trowbridge," PMLA 63 (1948), 268. Baxter wrote many newspaper columns in praise of Whitman's writings, and in 1886 attempted to obtain a pension for the poet. For more, see Christopher O. Griffin, "Baxter, Sylvester [1850–1927]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 7. See Whitman's August 13, 1891, letter to Sylvester Baxter, in which he briefly eulogizes James Russell Lowell. [back]
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