Walt Whitman to Trübner & Company, 5 October 1881

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Trübner & Company, 5 October 1881
Date: October 5, 1881
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05059
Source: The Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1842–1937, 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 created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
Contributors to digital file: Kirsten Clawson Nima Najafi Kianfar Stefan Schöberlein Nicole Gray
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Trübner & Company, 5 October 1881." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 19 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.05059.xml (TEI)

loc_nk.00342_large.jpg Rand, Avery & Co. , Printers.1 U S America Boston, Oct 5 1881 Trübner & Co : Dear Sirs

Osgood & Co: of this city, who have set up & electrotyped a new, complete & markedly fuller edition (with several new pieces) of my Leaves of Grass inform me that by first issuing & bona fide selling in Great Britain, I can take out a copyright there, for this edition (such as it is.) We therefore send you over a few copies at once, with the request that you will immediately have the book entered for loc_nk.00343_large.jpg loc_nk.00344_large.jpg copyright & secured in my name—(immediately after which the work will be published here.)2

I am under many obligations in the past to my friend your Josiah Child, & should like to have this matter put in his hands—should like to have him write to me about it, direct as of old, to Camden New Jersey3

loc_nk.00345_large.jpg

Notes

1. This is a draft letter; the finished letter was sent on October 5, 1881. [back]
2. Whitman completed reading the proofs on September 30 and sent a complete set to Dr. Bucke on October 4 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
3. On October 31 Whitman received from Josiah Child "form of entry for English copyright," which he returned to Trübner & Co. on November 1 (Whitman's Commonplace Book). [back]