The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: F. S. Ryman to Walt Whitman, 31 May 1888
Date: May 31, 1888
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03558
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.
Editorial note: The annotation, "F.S. Ryman," is in an unknown hand.
Contributors to digital file: Jeannette Schollaert, Ian Faith, Stefan Schöberlein, and Stephanie Blalock
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Boston
May 31st 1888
Dear Mr. Whitman:—
I send you a little token of my esteem as a birthday present. I am very glad you are again [able?] to write in your old style a little. I hope we may yet have a second volume of Leaves of Grass from you if such is compatible with 69 years.
I wish you many happy returns of this day.
Your friend
F.S. Ryman
Will you please let me know if this reaches you safely.
Correspondent:
This might be Shakespeare scholar
F. S. Ryman, who likely worked for the Boston Public Library. Ryman published,
for instance, on Ignatius Loyola Donnelly's controversial book The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon's Cipher in Shakespeare's Plays
(1888), which argued that Shakespeare's works were written by Francis Bacon.
Whitman and his disciples took great interest in Donnelly's book.