loc.03499.001_large.jpg
book sent July 28
Woodleigh, The Thicket,
Southsea, Portsmouth,
England.
16 July. 1890.
book sent July 28
Dear Sir.
Kindly oblige me by sending to me a copy of "Complete Poems and Prose"1 price $6.
I enclose a P.O.O. for one pound eleven shillings in English money to
cover cost of the Book & its postage to the above named place. If the P.O.O.
is not for enough, I will send to you another for what it may be short
& if you can register the parcel so as to render safer its receipt by me,
pray do so & increase my obligation to you.
Having been away at the
loc.03499.002_large.jpg
the British Archaeological Congress2 at Oxford—I have not
yet reached home.
I have the honor to be, Sir, your faithful admirer & Servant,
William Payne.3
To Walt Whitman Esq
North America
Correspondent:
Little is known about William Payne, who was a manager of
the National Provinicial Bank of England for Portsmouth.
Notes
- 1. Whitman's Complete Poems & Prose (1888), a volume Whitman often referred to
as the "big book," was published by the poet himself—in an arrangement
with publisher David McKay, who allowed Whitman to use the plates for both Leaves of Grass and Specimen
Days—in December 1888. With the help of Horace Traubel, Whitman made
the presswork and binding decisions for the volume. Frederick Oldach bound the
book, which included a profile photo of the poet on the title page. For more
information on the book, see Ed Folsom, Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman: A Catalog and
Commentary (University of Iowa: Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, 2005). [back]
- 2. In the upper right margin of
the paper, just above this part of Payne's letter, Whitman has written a series
of four numbers, beginning with "2" and increasing each subsequent number by
seven up to "23." [back]
- 3. This page of Payne's letter
is written on paper that includes the following printed banking information:
"National Provincial Bank of England Limited." The name of the bank has a wavy
line drawn through it in black ink. [back]