The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Pliny B. Smith to Walt Whitman, 16 August 1884
Date: August 16, 1884
Whitman Archive ID: loc.08483
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.
Editorial notes: The annotation, "vols sent Aug 19," is in the hand of Walt Whitman.
Related item: A line has been drawn through this letter. Whitman drafted his August 24, 1884, letter to Thomas W. H. Rolleston on the back of this letter from Smith. See loc.05824.
Contributors to digital file: Marie Ernster, Amanda J. Axley, and Stephanie Blalock
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Patent Law.
CHICAGO,
Aug. 16, 1884
Mr. Walt Whitman
Dear Sir,
Inclosed please find $5[.]00 for which please send me latest edition of your poems with autograph ($3[.]00 & 'specimen days & collect ($2[.]00)
Very truly yours,
Pliny B. Smith
Correspondent:
Pliny B. Smith (1850–1912) was a lawyer in Chicago for more than forty years. He
served as the counsel for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad for twelve years,
from 1883 to 1895. He was also a member of the Chicago Public Library Board from
1887 to 1893. For more on Smith, see "In Memoriam: Pliny B. Smith," In Memory of
the Members of the Chicago Bar Association who have died during the year 1911–1912 [Chicago:
Printed for the Association], 1912).