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Walt Whitman to Joseph M. Stoddart, 13 January 1891

 loc_gt.00177_large.jpg My friend J. M. S. (for so I would have it)

Yours just rec'd.1 Come around right away2 & let me mix you a good generous sour mash to remove such baseless & unworthy constructions from your thought—

Affectionate respects to Mrs. S.3 Walt Whitman

Correspondent:
Joseph Marshall Stoddart (1845–1921) published Stoddart's Encyclopaedia America, established Stoddart's Review in 1880, which was merged with The American in 1882, and became the editor of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1886. On January 11, 1882, Whitman received an invitation from Stoddart through J. E. Wainer, one of his associates, to dine with Oscar Wilde on January 14 (Clara Barrus, Whitman and Burroughs—Comrades [Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1931], 235n).


Notes

  • 1. See Stoddart's letter to Whitman of January 13, 1891. [back]
  • 2. The actor Francis Wilson accompanied Stoddart on the visit to Whitman. Wilson who wrote a letter to Whitman on January 16, 1891, after the visit, expressing his thanks. The letter arrived along with a bottle of Old Crow Whiskey. [back]
  • 3. Joseph Marshall Stoddart married Isabella Herkness (1850–1900). [back]
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