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Marion Thrasher to Walt Whitman, 6 December 1885

About This Item

  • Title: Marion Thrasher to Walt Whitman, 6 December 1885
  • Date: December 6, 1885
  • Creator(s): Marion Thrasher
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.04269
  • 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.
  • Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman Stefan Schöberlein Ian Faith Kyle Barton Nicole Gray
  • Cite this page: Thrasher, Marion. "Marion Thrasher to Walt Whitman, 6 December 1885." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 11 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.04269.xml (TEI)
 loc_vm.00429_large.jpg Marion Thrasher, A. M.,  
  SUPERINTENDENT  
 OF EDGAR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Edgar, Neb. Dec 6th 18851 Mr Walt Whitman My Dear Old Friend.

For years, I have known you intimately, through your poems. The people of the "Great West" would like to see you—as they cannot come to you, could we not persuade you to come to them?

Am known extensively over our State—as a lecturer before "Teachers Associations," and can arrange for you to give ten readings of your poems, in ten of our largest cities (you, East, would call them towns) at $50 for night—total $500.00—your expenses need not be more than $100, to and from your home here—netting you $400 for a fortnights work. You will confer the greatest favor on your many Western friends by accepting. If the Winter be too severe; could you come in the Spring—say, May? Trusting to hear favorably from you—I am—

Sincerely yours Marion Thrasher

Will furnish you the highest references.

 loc_vm.00430_large.jpg  loc_vm.00431_large.jpg Proposal for Western Course of Readings Dec. '85 | Marion Thrasher  loc_vm.00432_large.jpg

Correspondent:
As the letterhead indicates, Marion Thrasher was superintendent of Edgar Public Schools in Edgar, a small town in south central Nebraska.

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: EDGAR | 7 | [illegible]; CAMDEN, N.J. | DEC | 11 | 8 AM | 1885 | REC'D. [back]
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