Val. Stuart Redden to Walt Whitman, 11 November 1891
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New Orleans, La.,
Novem.11th.,1891.1
Walt, Whitman, Esq.,
Camden, N.J.:
My Dear Sir:—
I shall not flatter myself that you retain any knowledge or the faintest recollection of who I am, but last evening I chanced to read an interview reported in some News-paper, which said you spent considerable time in writing to your friends, intimating that you enjoyed doing this.—While reading this paragraph, an army (and no small army) of reminiscences were called to my mind, prominent among which was the fact that YOU used to greet me so cordially when I happened to meet you which I most frequently did at the junction of Penn. Ave. & 7th. Strs., in Washington, D.C., in about 1866 and 1868.2—I was then employed in the Treasury Dept., at Washington.
After my most cordial regards allow me to say that I should feel SO proud to receive your autograph at the bottom of a few words written by your hand; coming from YOU, I am assured they can be none but bright and kind words.
Your Old Friend, and Admirer, Val. Stuart Redden.
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My Sister3 attained quite a reputation about that time
as a writer for News-papers under the nom-de-plume of "Howard Glyndon."
She also was in and wrote from Washington at that time.
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Correspondent:
Capt. Val (possibly
Valerian) Stuart Redden (1844–1917) was a veteran of the Union Army who
briefly worked as a clerk for the U.S. Treasury Department in the late 1860s. In
1869, he married Elizabeth "Bessie" Povall Reeve, and the couple moved to
Louisianna and had one son, Stuart Reeve Redden. Redden worked as a stenographer
for various companies in New Orleans and lived with his family in nearby
Covington. An 1879 article in The Marshall Messenger
reports that Redden "is the owner of an autograph album with a number of notable
autographs therein," including those of "distinguished men living and dead, who
have played conspicusous parts in American history" ("Interesting Autographs,"
[February 14 1879], 3). For more information, see Redden's obituary in the St. Tammany Farmer ("Capt. V. Stuart Redden," [June 9,
1917], 1).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed: Walt. Whitman, Esq. | Camden, | N. J. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Nov 14 | 8PM | 91 | Rec'd. A partial Louisiana postmark is visible on the recto of the envelope. Redden's return address is typed in the left corner of the recto of the envelope as follows: Val. Stuart Redden | No. 28 Bellecastle Str., N.O., La. [back]
- 2. During the years Redden indicates, Whitman was employed as a clerk in the Attorney General's Office in Washington, D.C., where he was responsible for copying out drafts of letters and legal documents written by the Attorney General and his assistant. For more on Whitman's work during this period, see Rosemary Graham, "Attorney General's Office, United States," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. Laura Catherine Redden Searing (1839–1923) was an American journalist and poet. After losing her hearing and speech due to childhood spinal menengitis, Searing enrolled in the Missouri School for the Deaf and mastered sign language and the American Manual Alphabet. She then began contributing to various periodicals, including Harper's Magazine, Galaxy, and the American Annals of the Deaf. In 1861, the St. Louis Republican sent her to Washington, D.C., to cover the ongoing Civil War, and she was a European correspondent for The New York Times from 1865 to 1869. She is the author of several books of poetry, including Idyls of Battle and Poems of the Rebellion (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1864), Sounds from Secret Chambers (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1873), and Echoes of Other Days (San Francisco: Harr Wagner, 1921). For more information, see Judy Yaeger Jones and Jane E. Vallier, Sweet Bells Jangled: Laura Redden Searing, a Deaf Poet Restored (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2003). [back]