The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Henry Irving to Walt Whitman, 2 June 1889
Date: June 2, 1889
Whitman Archive ID: loc.08100
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.
Editorial note: The annotation, "cable," is in an unknown hand.
Contributors to digital file: Zainab Saleh, Brandon James O'Neil, and Stephanie Blalock
 image 1 |
Form No. 1
THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
This Company TRANSMITS and
DELIVERS messages only on conditions limiting its liability, which have been
assented to by the sender of the following message. Errors can be guarded against only be repeating a message
back to the sending station, for comparison, and the company will not hold itself liable for
errors or delays in the transmission or delivery of Unrepeated Messages, beyond the amount of tolls paid thereon,
nor in any case where the claim is not presented in writing within 60 days after sending the message.
This is an UNREPEATED MESSAGE, and is delivered by the request
of the sender, under the conditions named above.
THOS. T. ECKERT, General Manager. NORVIN GREEN, President.
NUMBER 15
SENT BY EL
REC'D By —M
CHECK 20
Received at 627 No. 7 North THIRD St.1
6/2 1889
Dated London
6/2/89,
To
Walt. Whitman
328 Mickel St.
Camden NJ.
Let me add to the many my respectful and sincere greetings.2
Henry Irving
Correspondent:
Sir Henry Irving
(1838–1905), born John Henry Brodribb, was a well-known British stage
actor and inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Both
Stoker (1847–1912) and Irving visited Whitman in Camden in 1884, where the
actor and Whitman talked "a good while and seemed to take to each other
mightily" (Thomas Donaldson, Walt Whitman the Man [New
York: Francis P. Harper, 1896], 55).
Notes:
1. The address "No. 7 North THIRD St." is stamped on the line provided for the location where the message was recorded. The stamp covers and may be intended to replace the number "627," which was written previously in ink on the same line. [back]
2. This telegram was printed, along with numerous other notes and addresses honoring Whitman on the occasion of his 70th birthday, in Camden's Compliment to Walt Whitman: May 31, 1889: Notes, Addresses, Letters, Telegrams, ed. Horace L. Traubel (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: David McKay), 71. [back]