Life & Letters

Correspondence

About this Item

Title: Gustav A. Roedell to Walt Whitman, [January 1891]

Date: [January 1891]

Whitman Archive ID: loc.05862

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.

Related item: This letter has been crossed out and Whitman has written his January 21, 1891, letter to Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke on the back. See loc.05861.

Contributors to digital file: Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Amanda J. Axley, Cristin Noonan, and Stephanie Blalock



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Dear Mr. Whitman:

If it is not asking too much, dare I beg that you will do me the great pleasure to transcribe your poem, The Pallid Wreath,1 for my collection of autographs?

The favor would be valued more than I can tell you.

I have the honor to remain

Your obliged servant,
Gustav A. Roedell.

Gallipolis, Ohio.


Correspondent:
Gustav A. (Gus) Roedell operated a drugstore in Gallipolis, Ohio, from 1892 to 1926, and is listed in the 1880s and 1890s as a secretary and warden of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Gallipolis and a charter member and officer of the Gallipolis Elks Lodge No. 107.

Notes:

1. "The Pallid Wreath" was published in the Critic on January 10, 1891; the poem was also reprinted in Good-Bye My Fancy (1891). [back]


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