Life & Letters

Correspondence

About this Item

Title: James R. Osgood to Walt Whitman, 13 September 1881

Date: September 13, 1881

Whitman Archive ID: loc.05163

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.

Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schöberlein, Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Nicole Gray, and Elizabeth Lorang



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JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO., Publishers,
211 TREMONT STREET.
Boston,
Sep. 13 1881

Dear Mr. Whitman:

We have your letter of 12th inst. together with the steel plate. We have had a proof made of the latter and find it very much worn. It will cost $15. or $20. to put it into a condition suitable to use. We should have no objection to buying it provided it were put in order. We think however there ought also to be in the book another plate—a portrait of yourself as now. We shall be glad to have a conference with you on this point.

As to the form of contract sent you, we sent it because it was our usual form and in pursuance of our usual custom. We do not care about it in that form; your letter is sufficient guarantee of your wishes & intentions. But we think it would be wise to have a specific time settled for the contract to continue, and beyond that to let it be terminable by either party on certain conditions.

Yours truly
James R. Osgood
Walt Whitman Esq


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