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Charles H. Roberts to Walt Whitman, 25 November 1891

 loc.03629.003_large.jpg Mr Walt Whitman Camden, N.J. Dear Sir:

Years ago, centennial year,2 I spoke with you on Camden Ferry3 about sunset, Celia Thaxter,4 the man o war bird,5 John Burroughs,6 etc I was then, or had been, mechanic and with Star & Sons, although a western-man.

Now, at Chicago, I have just bought "Good-Bye My Fancy,"7 and renew the acquaintance.

I shall send you, tomorrow, a little book of mine, which some people read; and which I think myself has green in it, though it may not be worth the browsing. I doubt if I send it to be read, or even looked at, but rather—as a tribute to courage, it is all I have. Look at its bill of fare; and—hand it to someone else, or—heave it away.

Yours very sincerely Charles H Roberts. see notes Dec 4 1891  loc.03629.004_large.jpg  loc_tb.00053.jpg  loc_tb.00054.jpg

Correspondent:
Charles Humphrey Roberts (1847–1911) was an Ohio-born patent and estate attorney in Chicago, Illinois. The book Roberts sent Whitman was likely his only novel, Down the O-hi-o (Chicago: A. C. McClurg, 1891), centering on the Quakers of Southwestern Ohio and the underground railroad. According to a review in the Chicago Tribune, "the author has made a careful study of the Quaker and his ways" (vol. 60 no. 73 [March 14 1891], 12). Roberts was working as an editor at the Cairo Bulletin when he died in 1911. For more information, see "Charles H. Roberts Dead" in The Inter Ocean (December 1, 1911), 2.


Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed to Mr. Walt Whitman, | Camden, | New Jersey. It is postmarked: Chicago, Ill. | Nov 25 | 230PM | 91; 14; Camden, N.J. | Nov 27 | 6AM | 91 | Rec'd. [back]
  • 2. In 1876, the National Centennial commemorated the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Centennial was marked by celebrations across the United States, not the least of which was the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, which ran from May to November 1876 with approximately 10 million visitors in a seven-month period. [back]
  • 3. Here, Roberts reminisces about a Camden Ferry ride with Whitman during the centennial year of 1876. Riding this ferry had become a frequent, beloved activity of Whitman's since his move to Camden in 1873. See Whitman's letter to Susan Stafford on September 10, 1882 in which Whitman describes the profound connection he had to riding the ferry: "I don't know what I should do without the ferry, & river, & crossing, day & night—I believe my best times are nights—sometimes appear to have the river & boat all to myself—." [back]
  • 4. Celia Laighton Thaxter (1835–1894) was an American poet and short story writer. The daughter of a Maine lighthouse keeper and hotelier, Thaxter's stories are often set in the American northeast and feature the Atlantic Ocean. Her works include Among the Isles of Shoals (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1873) and An Island Garden (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1894). For more information, see Joseph Flibbert's entry on Thaxter in Encylopedia of American Literature of the Sea and Great Lakes, ed. Jill B. Gidmark (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001), 441–442. [back]
  • 5. The poem (later retitled "The Man-of-War Bird") appeared in the Athenaeum (April 1, 1876), 463, which paid Whitman £3.3 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). It was later published in Progress as "Thou who hast slept all night upon the storm"; see The Cambridge History of American Literature, Volume 2: 1820–1865 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 557. [back]
  • 6. The naturalist John Burroughs (1837–1921) met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a decades-long correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman. However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged, curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs, see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 7. Whitman's book Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) was his last miscellany, and it included both poetry and short prose works commenting on poetry, aging, and death, among other topics. Thirty-one poems from the book were later printed as "Good-Bye my Fancy" in Leaves of Grass (1891–1892), the last edition of Leaves of Grass published before Whitman's death in March 1892. For more information see, Donald Barlow Stauffer, "'Good-Bye my Fancy' (Second Annex) (1891)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
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