Life & Letters

Correspondence

About this Item

Title: James R. Osgood & Company to Walt Whitman, 13 April 1882

Date: April 13, 1882

Whitman Archive ID: loc.05566

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, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Eder Jaramillo, and Nicole Gray



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K/1


JAMES R. OSGOOD AND CO.
PUBLISHERS
BOSTON
Apl. 13. 1882.

Walt Whitman, Esq.
Dear Sir:

We have your letter of Apl. 12.

Up to the present time the royalty due to you on the sales of the book amounts to $405.50. In this we include 400 copies sent to England, which we assume to be sold, but the sale of which is uncertain.

The plates have cost us about $475. including the steel portrait, and we have on hand about 225 copies of the book in sheets—none bound.

We are willing to turn over to you the plates, the steel portrait, and the copies on hand in sheets without charge, you giving us a receipt in full for the amount due you for royalty.

It is perhaps not an important matter, but as your letter seems to imply that this possible change is the result of a "settled decision" on our part, we feel it right to say that it is not we who have fixed inflexible conditions under which this matter could be decided.

These conditions have been fixed by yourself and they appear to be such as to obviate the possibility of compromise.

Yours truly
James R. Osgood & Co.


Notes:

1. Whitman renumbered these pages in blue pencil. [back]


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