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328 Mickle St—Camden New Jersey1
US America
July 20 1890
Yr fine "Essays Speculative & Suggestive"2 two vols: have just come—thank you—I shall write soon ab't them more at
length—Have you rec'd my Complete Works3 in one big vol: 900 pp? Send by mail to you—Also the L of G.
latest ed'n (in pocket b'k binding?)4—Also the portraits in large envelope?—Say in y'r next
if so or no. I keep up yet—paralyzed almost completely—get out in wheel chair5—sleep & appetite fair—my
N A. Rev: piece is in "Spec: Days" call'd "Poetry, to-day in America"6—y'r letter three months ago rec'd7
Walt Whitman
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Correspondent:
John Addington Symonds
(1840–1893), a prominent biographer, literary critic, and poet in
Victorian England, was author of the seven-volume history Renaissance in Italy, as well as Walt
Whitman—A Study (1893), and a translator of Michelangelo's
sonnets. But in the smaller circles of the emerging upper-class English
homosexual community, he was also well known as a writer of homoerotic poetry
and a pioneer in the study of homosexuality, or sexual inversion as it was then
known. See Andrew C. Higgins, "Symonds, John Addington [1840–1893]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This postcard is addressed: John Addington
Symonds | Davos Platz | Switzerland. It is postmarked: Davos | 1 Vil[illegible]—7 | Platz; Camden [illegible] | JUL | [illegible] | 6 AM | 90. [back]
- 2. Whitman is referring to John
Addington Symonds's Essays Speculative and Suggestive
(London: Chapman and Hall, 1890). The chapter on "Democratic Art" is mainly
inspired by Whitman. In his August 20–22,
1890, letter, Bucke remarked: "The whole article is 'flat, stale and
unprofitable'—a saw dust chewing business—dealing with the hull, the
shell, the superfices, never for one line, one flash of insight penetrating to
the heart of the business." On August 24, 1890,
Whitman observed: "you are a little more severe on Symonds than I sh'd
be." [back]
- 3. 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]
- 4. Whitman had a limited
pocket-book edition of Leaves of Grass printed in honor
of his 70th birthday, on May 31, 1889, through special arrangement with
Frederick Oldach. Only 300 copies were printed, and Whitman signed the title
page of each one. The volume also included the annex Sands at
Seventy and his essay A Backward Glance O'er Traveled
Roads. See Whitman's May 16, 1889, letter
to Oldach. 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]
- 5. Horace Traubel and Ed
Wilkins, Whitman's nurse, went to Philadelphia to purchase a wheeled chair for
the poet that would allow him to be "pull'd or push'd" outdoors. See Whitman's
letter to William Sloane Kennedy of May 8,
1889. [back]
- 6. See John Addington Symonds,
Essays Speculative and Suggestive (London: Chapman
and Hall, 1890), 242. In his first footnote in "Democratic Art," his essay on
Whitman, Symonds wonders: "'Poetry of the Future' (North
American Review, February, 1881—why not included in his 'November
Boughs,' I know not)." "The Poetry of the Future," which first appeared in the
North American Review 132.291 (February 1881):
195–210, was reprinted, in a slightly revised form, as "Poetry To-day in
America—Shakspere—The Future" in Specimen Days
& Collect (1882) (see Prose Works 2:
474–490). In a letter to Whitman of August 3,
1890, Symonds confessed that he had discovered this error and hoped to
correct it in future editions. The change was never made (see The Letters of John Addington Symonds, Volume III: 1885–1893,
ed. Herbert M. Schueller and Robert L. Peters [Detroit: Wayne State University
Press, 1969], 481–482, 484n). [back]
- 7. This letter has not yet been located. [back]