Title: Walt Whitman to Fanny Raymond Ritter, 7 February 1880
Date: February 7, 1880
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05278
Source: Miller's transcription is drawn from a photostat in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1969), 5:306–307. 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, Kirsten Clawson, Nima Najafi Kianfar, and Nicole Gray
431 Stevens Street
Camden New Jersey
Feb
7 '80
Dear Mrs Ritter1
I cheerfully consent to Professor's using the words of Two Veterans for musical publication—& also give permission for further musical adaptation of my pieces—Am curious to see how they go—Am sure I sh'd be impress'd and pleased—My western trip has worked well—My health is about the same as of late years—
When the music is printed—(if printed—) please send me a copy—
1. Frédéric Louis Ritter set "Dirge for Two Veterans" to music; see Whitman's letters to Herbert Gilchrist of April 29, 1879, and to John Burroughs of February 21, 1880. Kenneth P. Neilson, in The World of Walt Whitman Music: A Bibliographical Study (1963), lists only one work by Ritter. [back]