The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Joseph M. Stoddart to Walt Whitman, 11 March 1891
Date: March 11, 1891
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04683
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.
Notes for this letter were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented, updated, or created by Whitman Archive staff as appropriate.
Contributors to digital file: Cristin Noonan, Andrew David King, Breanna Himschoot, and Stephanie Blalock
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LIPPINCOTT'S
MONTHLY MAGAZINE
Philadelphia, March 11
1891
Dear Mr Whitman.
The bearer of this is my son1—who inherits his father's admiration for you. He will explain his mission & if you can gratify him, I will greatly appreciate the kindness.
The Whitman articles2 are exciting considerable attention.—Will get up the notices after while and send them to you for perusal.
Ever yours truly
J. M. Stoddart—
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. Joseph Alfred Stoddart (1870–1932) was the oldest of the four children born to Joseph Marshall Stoddart (1845–1921) and his wife Isabella Herkness Stoddart (1850–1900). Usually referred to as "Alfred" or "J. Alfred," was a financier who spent forty years working for Drexel and Company. He was also "a writer for magazines on horses, hounds and fox hunting" (see "J. Alfred Stoddart," Philadelphia Inquirer [October 13, 1932], 23). [back]
2. Stoddart is referring to the March issue of Lippincott's in 1891 (Volume 47, pages 376–389). The issue contained Whitman's portrait as a frontispiece, "Old Age Echoes" (including "Sounds of Winter," "The Unexpress'd," "Sail Out for Good, Eidólon Yacht!" and "After the Argument"), Whitman's "Some Personal and Old-Age Memoranda," Horace Traubel's "Walt Whitman: The Poet and Philosopher of Man," and "The Old Man Himself. A Postscript." [back]