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Walt Whitman to James Knowles, 9 February 1890

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to James Knowles, 9 February 1890
  • Date: February 9, 1890
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.03208
  • 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.

    Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
  • Contributors to digital file: Blake Bronson-Bartlett Ian Faith Alex Ashland Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to James Knowles, 9 February 1890." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 09 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.03208.xml (TEI)
 loc.03208.001.jpg Camden New Jersey U S America Feb: 9 1890 Dear Sir

I sent you a little cluster of poemets "Old Age's Echoes" ab't 1st of Nov: last—wh' I suppose you have rec'd—No word rec'd me ab't them—If you can't use them please kindly return the slip copy (it was printed on a slip) to me here,1

respectfully &c: Walt Whitman  loc.03208.002.jpg Walt Whitman—9 Feb 1890 | as to his verses on | 'Old Age Echoes'?

Correspondent:
James Thomas Knowles (1831–1908) was the editor of The Nineteenth Century, a leading British monthly magazine, in which "Fancies at Navesink" was published on August 18, 1885. He was also an architect and the founder of the Metaphysical Society, dedicated to discovering common ground between science and religion.

Notes

  • 1. See Whitman's November 4, 1889, letter to the Canadian physician and psychiatrist Richard Maurice Bucke, where he mentions submitting "Old Age Echoes." Knowles returned the copy on February 21, 1890. The cluster of poems was eventually published in the March 1891 issue of Lippincott's Magazine. [back]
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