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The Truth Seeker Company,
Booksellers And Publishers,
28 Lafayette Place.
New York,
Jan 31 1891
book sent by mail Feb:3
Dear Sir
The Ingersoll1–Field2 Discussion3
is out of print in paper. We have copies
in cloth—at 100
Will you please send to Wm. J. Nicolay, Minier, Ill.4
1 Complete Works of Walt Whitman5
1 vol. Octavo, hf. cloth—
McKay6 says this book is owned
by Mr Whitman & that he can only give us 20% on it.
Hope you can do better—thro
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Mr Whitman, as this book is to be sold again, and we will
have to give Mr Nickolay a discount. Please send to him the cheapest
way, & send us bill.
Yours
Truth Seeker Co
B.
Correspondent:
The Truth Seeker Company is
the longest continually operating small press in the U.S., and its newspaper is
the oldest freethought publication. It was founded by D. M. Bennett
(1818–1882) in Paris, Illinois, in 1873. He moved the publication office
to New York City and ran it as well as edited its newspaper The Truth Seeker until his death. Eugene M. Macdonald
(1855–1909) was publisher and editor from 1883 to 1909
Notes
- 1. Robert "Bob" Green Ingersoll
(1833–1899) was a Civil War veteran and an orator of the post-Civil War
era, known for his support of agnosticism. Ingersoll was a friend of Whitman,
who considered Ingersoll the greatest orator of his time. Whitman said to Horace
Traubel, "It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll, for he is
Leaves of Grass. He lives, embodies, the
individuality I preach. I see in Bob the noblest
specimen—American-flavored—pure out of the soil, spreading, giving,
demanding light" (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Wednesday, March 25, 1891). The feeling was mutual. Upon Whitman's
death in 1892, Ingersoll delivered the eulogy at the poet's funeral. The eulogy
was published to great acclaim and is considered a classic panegyric (see
Phyllis Theroux, The Book of Eulogies [New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1997], 30). [back]
- 2. Henry Martyn Field
(1822–1907) was a clergyman and the author of several travel books. He
also wrote The History of the Atlantic Telegraph (1866)
and served as the editor and publisher of The Evangelist,
a Presbyterian periodical, from 1854 to 1898. [back]
- 3. This is a reference to the
book The Field-Ingersoll Discussion, a collection of
articles on faith and agnosticism by Henry Martyn Field (1822–1907) and
the orator and agnostic, Robert Ingersoll (1833–1899) that were published
in The North American Review. The book was published in
New York in 1888 by the journal's editor Charles Allen Thorndike Rice and The
North American Review Publishing Company. [back]
- 4. William J. Nicolay (b. 1835)
grew up in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and began his career as a teacher
before deciding to attend medical school. Nicolay then became a homeopathic
physician and established a practice in Minier, Illnois. [back]
- 5. 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]
- 6. David McKay (1860–1918) took
over Philadelphia-based publisher Rees Welsh's bookselling and publishing
businesses in 1881–82. McKay and Rees Welsh published the 1881 edition of
Leaves of Grass after opposition from the Boston
District Attorney prompted James R. Osgood & Company of Boston, the original publisher,
to withdraw. McKay also went on to publish Specimen Days &
Collect, November Boughs, Gems
from Walt Whitman, Complete Prose Works,
and the final Leaves of Grass, the so-called deathbed edition. For
more information about McKay, see Joel Myerson, "McKay, David (1860–1918)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]