Walt Whitman to James W. Wallace, 23 February 1891

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to James W. Wallace, 23 February 1891
Date: February 23, 1891
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: loc.08009
Source: Henry S. Saunders Collection of Walt Whitman Papers, 1899–1913, 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, 1961–1977), 169. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Cristin Noonan Andrew David King Breanna Himschoot Stephanie Blalock
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to James W. Wallace, 23 February 1891." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 25 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.08009.xml (TEI)

Camden N J—America Feb: 23 '911

Still badly off, but a shade easier if anything this forenoon—the Art Magazine has come2—it is a fine number—thank you—the first batch of copy for "Good-Bye"3 has gone to the printer—but tho' a little matter sh'l not have proof of it for ten days—the next (March) number of N[orth] A[merican] Review4 is adv'd to have an essay5 (very scrappy it will be) by me—

W W

Correspondent:
James William Wallace (1853–1926), of Bolton, England, was an architect and great admirer of Whitman. Wallace, along with Dr. John Johnston (1852–1927), a physician in Bolton, founded the "Bolton College" of English admirers of the poet. Johnston and Wallace corresponded with Whitman and with Horace Traubel and other members of the Whitman circle in the United States, and they separately visited the poet and published memoirs of their trips in John Johnston and James William Wallace, Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–1891 by Two Lancashire Friends (London: Allen and Unwin, 1917). For more information on Wallace, see Larry D. Griffin, "Wallace, James William (1853–1926)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).

Notes

1. This letter is addressed: J W Wallace | Anderton near Chorley | Lancashire England. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Feb 23 | 8 PM | 91. [back]
2. Wallace's letter to Whitman of January 23, 1891 discussed the British art critic John Ruskin and included a copy of the January 1891 issue of The Magazine of Art, which published portraits of Ruskin. [back]
3. Whitman's book Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) was his last miscellany, and it included both poetry and short prose works commenting on poetry, aging, and death, among other topics. Thirty-one poems from the book were later printed as "Good-Bye my Fancy" in Leaves of Grass (1891–1892), the last edition of Leaves of Grass published before Whitman's death in March 1892. For more information see, Donald Barlow Stauffer, "'Good-Bye my Fancy' (Second Annex) (1891)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
4. The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. The journalist Charles Allen Thorndike Rice (1851–1889) edited and published the magazine in New York from 1876 until his death. After Rice's death, Lloyd Bryce became owner and editor. [back]
5. On October 3, 1890, Whitman had accepted an invitation to write for The North American Review. He sent them "Old Poets," the first of a two-part prose contribution, on October 9. "Old Poets" was published in the November 1890 issue of the magazine, and Whitman's "Have We a National Literature?" was published in the March 1891 issue. [back]