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The Magazine of Poetry
C.W. Moulton,
Editor
DICTATED
Buffalo, N.Y.
November 28th 1888
Mr. Walt Whitman
Camden, N.J.
Dear Sir:—
Sometime since I wrote you concerning a selection from your poems which I wished to
publish in the first number of the Magazine of Poetry. Dr. Buckle1 of London, Ont., has kindly furnished a biographical notice of yourself, and with
your permission, I would like to make the selections from your poems. I enclose
letter from your publisher in which Mr. McKay2 expresses his
approval of our new magazine.
Trusting to hear from you at your early convenience, I remain,
Yours very respectfully,
C. W. Moulton
(L.M)
answered Dec 1 '88 by HLT.
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See notes Nov 30, '88.
Correspondent:
Charles Wells Moulton
(1859–1913) was an American poet and the editor of the Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review.
Notes
- 1. Moulton means Dr. Bucke
(instead of Buckle). Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a Canadian
physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and
meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke
claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him
to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany.
Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt
Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one
of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of
Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 2. David McKay (1860–1918) took
over Philadelphia-based publisher Rees Welsh's bookselling and publishing
businesses in 1881–82. McKay and Rees Welsh published the 1881 edition of
Leaves of Grass after opposition from the Boston
District Attorney prompted James R. Osgood & Company of Boston, the original publisher,
to withdraw. McKay also went on to publish Specimen Days &
Collect, November Boughs, Gems
from Walt Whitman, Complete Prose Works,
and the final Leaves of Grass, the so-called deathbed edition. For
more information about McKay, see Joel Myerson, "McKay, David (1860–1918)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]