The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Karl Knortz to Walt Whitman, [late September or early October 1885]
Date: Late September or early October 1885
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06095
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.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman, Stefan Schöberlein, Ian Faith, Nicole Gray, and Kyle Barton
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540 East 155th Str. New
York.
My dear Sir;
The translations of your poems are now ready for the printer and the MS will sail for Europe on Saturday next. You will receive a copy of the book in due time.
J. Schabelitz, of Zürich, Switzerland, is the publisher.1 I wish you would send him a copy of the "Leaves of Grass," as he reads English.
Yours very truly
Karl Knortz
Walt Whitman
328 Mickle St.2
Correspondent:
Karl Knortz
(1841–1918) was born in Prussia and came to the U.S. in 1863. He was the
author of many books and articles on German-American affairs and was
superintendent of German instruction in Evansville, Ind., from 1892 to 1905. See
The American-German Review 13 (December 1946),
27–30. His first published criticism of Whitman appeared in the New York
Staats-Zeitung Sonntagsblatt on December 17, 1882,
and he worked with Thomas W. H. Rolleston on the first book-length translation
of Whitman's poetry, published as Grashalme in 1889. For
more information about Knortz, see Walter Grünzweig, "Knortz, Karl (1841–1918)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. Thomas W. H. Rolleston's translation of selections from Whitman was revised by Knortz and published as Grashalme: Gedichte (Zurich: Verlags-Magazin, 1889). [back]
2. See the previous letter from Knortz to Whitman of September 1885. Whitman wrote a note on the back of this letter and sent it to Rolleston on October 9, 1885. [back]