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.


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