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Ye Painte Shoppe,
1833 SPRUCE STREET
PHILADELPHIA.
April 15. 1886
My dear Mr. Whitman
It is so late that I must deny myself the pleasure of coming over tomorrow and
placing the
proceeds in your hands. Instead I hand you these checks, as follows
S Weir Mitchell1
|
100 |
H H. Furness |
50 |
J B Lippincott Co. |
25 |
|
175 |
and my own check for one hundred & twenty-nine, (129) dollars, in all $304.
Key sum is made up as follows
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loc_vm.01346_large.jpg
The Asherah, a little society made up of Chai Leland Harrison, Lincoln Eyre, Wilson Eyre, Thos. Wharton, Carl Edelheim
T.W. |
45. |
R. W. Gilder2
|
25 |
D. McKay3
|
10 |
C. B. Bryant |
10 |
Mrs Talcott Williams4
|
5 |
Miss Horrie Royce |
5 |
Seats sold |
19 |
|
129. |
I shall be over in a day or two. It would give me, personally, very great pleasure,
if it struck you favorably to send Dr. Weir Mitchell an
inscribed volume of your poems and a note to the J B Lippincott Co. But the last is scarcely needed.5
Yours lovingly
Talcott Williams
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T. Wms
Correspondent:
Talcott Williams
(1849–1928) was associated with the New York Sun
and World as well as the Springfield Republican before he became the editor of the Philadelphia Press in 1879. His newspaper vigorously defended Whitman
in news articles and editorials after the Boston censorship of 1882. For more
information about Williams, see Philip W. Leon, "Williams, Talcott (1849–1928)," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell
(1829–1914) was a specialist in nervous disorders as well as a poet and a
novelist. In 1878, Whitman met with Dr. Mitchell, who attributed his earlier
paralysis to a small rupture of a blood vessel in the brain but termed Whitman's
heart "normal and healthy" (see Whitman's letter to Louisa Orr Whitman of April 13–14, 1878). Whitman also noted that
"the bad spells [Mitchell] tho't recurrences by habit (? sort of automatic)" (Whitman's Commonplace Book,
Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). For more, see Jennifer A. Hynes, "Mitchell, Silas Weir (1829–1914)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 2. Richard Watson Gilder
(1844–1909) was the assistant editor of Scribner's
Monthly from 1870 to 1881 and editor of its successor, The Century, from 1881 until his death. Whitman had met
Gilder for the first time in 1877 at John H. Johnston's (Gay Wilson Allen, The Solitary Singer [New York: New York University Press,
1955], 482). Whitman attended a reception and tea given by Gilder after William
Cullen Bryant's funeral on June 14; see "A Poet's Recreation" in the New York Tribune, July 4, 1878. Whitman considered Gilder
one of the "always sane men in the general madness" of "that New York art
delirium" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Sunday, August 5, 1888). For more about Gilder, see Susan L.
Roberson, "Gilder, Richard Watson (1844–1909)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. 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]
- 4. Sophia Wells Royce Williams
(1850–1928) was a writer and frequent visitor (with her husband Talcott
Williams) to Whitman's Camden, New Jersey, home. [back]
- 5. There is no record of
Whitman doing either. [back]