Title: Preston Harrison to Walt Whitman, [1885?]
Date: [1885?]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.08461
Source: The Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1842–1937, 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.
Related item: Whitman struck through this letter and used the verso to draft trial titles for the poem that would be published as "Fancies at Navesink." "Voices of Ebb-Tide" was a trial title for "Fancies at Navesink," which was first published in The Nineteenth Century (August 1885). This letter therefore likely dates to 1885.
Contributors to digital file: Marie Ernster, Amanda J. Axley, and Paige Wilkinson
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[illegible]a busy moment & sincerely wishing an answer from you.1 I hope you will not disappoint me.
Yours most respectfully
Preston Harrison.
P.S. My address:
231 S. Ashland Ave,
Chicago, Ill.
Correspondent:
Likely William Preston
Harrison (1869–1940), son of Carter Henry Harrison who was mayor of
Chicago from 1879 until 1887 and later assassinated in 1893. William Preston
Harrison worked in real estate and served as the editor and publisher of the Chicago Times from 1891 to 1895. He later moved to Los
Angeles and donated paintings to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
1. This is the final page of the letter from Harrison; the other page or pages of the letter are lost. [back]