The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: John F. Burke and Aubrey D. Hiles to Walt Whitman, 2 March 1891
Date: March 2, 1891
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04902
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.
Editorial note: The annotation, "ans'd book sent," is in the hand of Walt Whitman.
Contributors to digital file: Andrew David King, Cristin Noonan, Stephanie Blalock, Amanda J. Axley, Marie Ernster, and Jeff Hill
 image 1 |  image 2 |
John F. Burke
Aubrey D. Hiles
LAW OFFICE OF
BURKE & HILES,
891 East Water Street.
TELEPHONE 1457
DICTATED
B.
Milwaukee, Wis.,
Mar. 2nd/91.
189
Mr. Walt. Whitman,
Camden, New Jersey.
Dear Sir:—
After waiting in vain for some time for my Stationer here [to] obtain for me copy of your "Democratic Vistas,"1 I take the liberty of asking you where I can obtain copy, or of stating that if you will send me copy of [same with] [illegible] I will [illegible]
Correspondent:
John F. Burke and Aubrey D.
Hiles were both attorneys who shared an office on Water Street in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. Burke specialized in mercantile collections and commercial law, and
Hiles also focused on mercantile collections (Hubbell's Legal Directory
for Lawyers and Business Men [New York: The Hubbell Legal Directory
Company, 1892], 218).
Notes:
1. Whitman's Democratic Vistas was first published in 1871 in New York by J.S. Redfield. The volume was an eighty-four-page pamphlet based on three essays, "Democracy," "Personalism," and "Orbic Literature," all of which Whitman intended to publish in the Galaxy magazine. Only "Democracy" and "Personalism" appeared in the magazine. For more information on Democratic Vistas, see Arthur Wrobel, "Democratic Vistas [1871]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]