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Walt Whitman to John Russell Young, 24 October 1891

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to John Russell Young, 24 October 1891
  • Date: October 24, 1891
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.08441
  • 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 Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 256. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Ryan Furlong Amanda J. Axley Alex Ashland Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to John Russell Young, 24 October 1891." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 03 May 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.08441.xml (TEI)
Camden N J1— Oct: 24 '91 Dear friend J R Y—

Y'rs of 23d rec'd2—many thanks for the invitation, & affectionate regards to you & to Messrs: Jefferson & Florence3—But I am too dilapidated, & cannot think of trying to come over.

If you see Frank Carpenter4 tell him I am willing to sit for the picture, wh' is all I can do—& I send him my best compliments—am sitting here now in great arm chair with wolf-skin spread over back for warmth—cannot get across the room (f'm paralysis)—but fair spirits—just had a pleasant call f'm Jeannette Gilder5 N Y. & some charming girls6—

Walt Whitman

Correspondent:
John Russell Young (1841–1899) was a noted journalist in Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, D. C. A Pennsylvania native, he began writing at the Philadelphia Press at age seventeen and was named a managing editor in 1862. After serving as a war journalist during the Civil War, he moved to New York in 1865 to work at the New York Tribune, which he edited from 1866 to 1868. In 1870 he established his own newspaper, the New York Standard. In 1877, he was invited to accompany President Ulysses S. Grant on a world tour; Young published Around the World with General Grant, a two-volume account of the tour, in 1879. Young's knowledge of the Chinese language earned him the position of the American ambassador to China from 1882 to 1885.

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: John Russell Young | Care Union League | Philadelphia. It is postmarked: Camd(?) | Oct 2(?) | 8 PM | 91. [back]
  • 2. See Young's letter to Whitman of October 23, 1891. [back]
  • 3. Joseph ("Joe") Jefferson III (1829–1905) was an American actor and one of the most famous American comedians of the nineteenth century. He was well known for his portrayal of Rip Van Winkle onstage. On October 23, 1891, the American journalist and diplomat John Russell Young (1840–1899) invited Whitman to an informal luncheon at the Union Club in Philadelphia in honor of Joseph Jefferson and William Jermyn Florence, stage name of Bernard Conlin, a dialect comedian. Whitman also mentioned that he had declined Russell's invitation in his October 24, 1891, letter to the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke. [back]
  • 4. Francis Bicknell Carpenter (1830–1900), the American painter best known for his portrait of Abraham Lincoln, First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, met Whitman following one of the poet's Lincoln lectures (see "An Old Poet's Reception," The Sun (April 15, 1887). [back]
  • 5. Jeannette Leonard Gilder (1849–1916) helped her brother, Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909), edit Scribner's Monthly and then, with another brother, Joseph Benson Gilder (1858–1936), co-edited the Critic (which she co-founded in 1881). For more, see Susan L. Roberson, "Gilder, Jeannette L. (1849–1916)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 6. Little is known about the "charming girls" that visited Whitman with Jeanette Gilder. In conversation with Horace Traubel, Whitman mentioned the visit: "'Jeannette Gilder—Jennie—was here today, with some beautiful girls. She is large, splendid, frank, manly—yes, she should have been a man.'" Whitman then added, "'I was glad to see her. She refreshed me—and the girls, they too'" (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Saturday, October 24, 1891). [back]
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