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HARPER & BROTHERS' EDITORIAL ROOMS.
FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK
March 16, 1891
Dear Mr Whitman,
I saw a literary note yesterday, saything that you will soon bring
out a new volume of poems.1 We have not yet printed your poem—"Death's Valley," written
at our request.2 We do not know whether you think of using this
poem in
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your forthcoming volume; indeed, we presume that you do not, as we
secured it with a view to its publication at our option as to time.
But we ought to draw your attention to the matter, to guard against the
possibility of your issue of the poem before its
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appearance in our
magazine.
Your sincerely
H. M. Alden
Edr Harper's Maga.3
Correspondent:
Henry Mills Alden (1836–1919)
was managing editor of Harper's Weekly from 1863 to 1869
and editor of Harper's Monthly Magazine from 1869 until
his death.
Notes
- 1. 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]
- 2. Whitman's poem "Death's Valley" was published in Harper's Monthly
Magazine in April 1892, a few days after the poet's death on March 26
of that year. Whitman chose not to include the poem in Good-Bye My Fancy (1891). [back]
- 3. Harper's Monthly
Magazine (sometimes Harper's New Monthly
Magazine or simply Harper's) was established in
1850 by Henry J. Raymond and Fletcher Harper. The magazine became successful by
reprinting British novels before eventually publishing American authors. Six of
Whitman's poems were published there between 1874 and 1892. For more information
on Whitman's relationship with Harper's, see Susan
Belasco's Harper's Monthly Magazine. [back]