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Walt Whitman to an Unidentified Correspondent, [1881?]

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to an Unidentified Correspondent, [1881?]
  • Date: 1881
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: med.00652
  • Source: The location of the original manuscript is unknown. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 262. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schoeberlein Nima Najafi Kianfar Kirsten Clawson Nicole Gray Elizabeth Lorang
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to an Unidentified Correspondent, [1881?]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 19 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: med.00652.xml (TEI)

[Whitman referred to "My Long Island Antecedents" and to a favorable review of Leaves of Grass in the Boston Herald, which he included in the letter. Ostensibly by Sylvester Baxter, the review was partly drafted by Whitman himself.]1

Notes

  • 1. The summary of the letter is drawn from a catalog put out by the American Art Association for a sale on January 31, 1939. The location of this manuscript is presently unknown. Whitman sent "My Long Island Antecedents" to The North American Review on October 29, but it was returned (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). For a discussion of the Baxter-Whitman co-authored review, see Kenneth M. Price and Janel Cayer, "'It might be us speaking instead of him!': Individuality, Collaboration, and the Networked Forces Contributing to 'Whitman,'" Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 33 (2015): 114–124. [back]
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