The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Frederick Oldach, 27 August 1890
Date: August 27, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07941
Source: 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 The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 5:76. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Ian Faith, Ryan Furlong, Breanna Himschoot, and Stephanie Blalock
Camden New Jersey
328 Mickle Street
Aug: 27 1890
Mr Oldach, binder,
Dear Sir,
I want you to make up fifty (50) sets in sheets, folded &c: of the big book (complete works)1 with the plates, autograph sheet, and every thing entire & ship–shape, & send David McKay2 23 S 9th St3—
I believe you have all the plates—but I think I have to send to you from here the 50 autograph sheets.
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Frederick Oldach (1823–1907)
was a German bookbinder whose Philadelphia firm bound Whitman's November Boughs (1888) and Complete
Poems & Prose (1888), as well as the special seventieth-birthday
issue of Leaves of Grass (1889).
Notes:
1. Whitman's Complete Poems & Prose (1888), a volume Whitman often referred to as the "big book," was published by the poet himself—in an arrangement with publisher David McKay, who allowed Whitman to use the plates for both Leaves of Grass and Specimen Days—in December 1888. With the help of Horace Traubel, Whitman made the presswork and binding decisions for the volume. Frederick Oldach bound the book, which included a profile photo of the poet on the title page. For more information on the book, see Ed Folsom, Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman: A Catalog and Commentary. [back]
2. David McKay (1860–1918) took over Philadelphia-based publisher Rees Welsh's bookselling and publishing businesses in 1881–2. McKay and Rees Welsh published the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass after opposition from the Boston District Attorney prompted James R. Osgood & Company of Boston, the publisher Whitman had originally contracted with for publication of the volume, to withdraw. McKay also went on to publish Specimen Days & Collect, November Boughs, Gems from Walt Whitman, and Complete Prose Works. For more information about McKay, see Joel Myerson, "McKay, David (1860–1918)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
3. On August 19, 1890, McKay inquired the price of 50 copies of Complete Poems & Prose and was informed that it was $150 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). See also Whitman's November 1, 1890 letter to David McKay. [back]