The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Frederick Oldach to Walt Whitman, 29 October 1890
Date: October 29, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03463
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 derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented, updated, or created by Whitman Archive staff as appropriate.
Contributors to digital file: Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Ian Faith, Breanna Himschoot, and Stephanie Blalock
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OFFICE OF
OLDACH & CO.
BOOK BINDERS,
No. 1215 FILBERT STREET
BINDERIES:
1215 Filbert Street.
AND
114 S. Third Street.
Philadelphia,
Oct 29 1890
Mr Walt Whitman
Dear Sir.
We delivered Mr McKay1 50 Walt Whitman. sheets. as per Bill Enclosed. if this book is to be sold this way, it will be very unprofitable to us to Carry the sheets, which take up some very valuable room, to get out a few Copies now & then, Costs us 3 or 4 times as much as we Can charge You. if You do not intend to Bind up any of these in a Reasonable time. we wish you would store them elsewhere2
Yours truly
Oldach & Co
Correspondent:
Frederick Oldach (1823–1907)
was a German bookbinder whose Philadelphia firm bound Whitman's November Boughs (1888) and Complete
Poems & Prose (1888), as well as the special seventieth-birthday
issue of Leaves of Grass (1889).
Notes:
1. David McKay (1860–1918) took over Philadelphia-based publisher Rees Welsh's bookselling and publishing businesses in 1881–2. 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 publisher Whitman had originally contracted with for publication of the volume, to withdraw. McKay also went on to publish Specimen Days & Collect, November Boughs, Gems from Walt Whitman, and Complete Prose Works. 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]
2. On November 5, Horace Traubel noted: "W. explained that while I was away he 'got a very raspy note from Oldach practically asking that I take my sheets away, saying there was nothing to him in their being there,' etc. W. now would have Oldach bind up 150 copies more, then fold all rest of the sheets and arrange them for binding, etc., subject to order. Gave me memorandum letter to that effect" (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Wednesday, November 5, 1890). See Whitman's November 5, 1890, reply to Oldach. [back]