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Department of Justice
Washington Jan 3 1872
Dear Sirs:
Wishing to close up matters,1 I solicit, as early as
convenient, an answer to my letter2 of about two weeks
since, (in response to yours of a day or two previous) in relation to my books left
with you on sale (as per your receipt of Nov. 3d, 1870)
Yours resp'lly
Walt Whitman
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Correspondent:
W.H. Piper & Co. was a
Boston publisher located at Washington and Franklin streets. They also printed
monthly literary bulletins spotlighting current literature.
Notes
- 1. In a letter on July 20, 1867, John T. Trowbridge had said that
William H. Piper and Co., booksellers in Boston, were willing to take 50
copies of the new edition of Leaves of Grass, and
that he could personally recommend the firm. For some time, Whitman did not
act on the suggestion that this firm could retail his Leaves of Grass. However, in his September 24,
1870, letter to Trowbridge, Whitman announced that he had "engaged
in electrotyping a new edition of my book." Then, Whitman asked for
the name of the Boston publisher who had been willing to sell his
book: "You sent me word a year or more ago of some Boston publisher, or
bookseller, who was willing (or perhaps wished) to sell my book—Who
was it?—I should like to have some such man there—to sell the
book on commission, & be agent, depositor, &c—."
The firm was advertised as Whitman's Boston agent in books published in 1871
and 1872. Later Whitman authorized Asa K. Butts and Co. to collect the money
Piper owed to him; see Whitman's December 29,
1873, and February 4, 1874, letters to
Butts. For more on Trowbridge, see Whitman's December 27, 1863, letter. [back]
- 2. See Whitman's letter to W.
H. Piper & Co. of December 8, 1871 in which he
recalls the receipt from Nov. 3, 1870 for 25 copies each of Leaves of Grass, Passage to India, and Democratic Vistas. [back]