Title: Walt Whitman to Charles W. Eldridge, 18 May 1884
Date: May 18, 1884
Whitman Archive ID: med.00765
Source: 19th Century Shop. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Ted Genoways (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2004), 7:75. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman, Stefan Schöberlein, Kyle Barton, and Nicole Gray
328 Mickle street Camden New Jersey
May 18, 1884
Thank you deeply for sending the excellent picture of Father Taylor1—just what I wanted—I have penned a short informal reminiscence of Father T (in 1859) which may be printed in a magazine—If so I shall send you a copy.
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Charles W. Eldridge (1837–1903) was one half
of the Boston-based abolitionist publishing firm Thayer and Eldridge, who issued
the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. In December 1862, on
his way to find his injured brother George in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Whitman
stopped in Washington and encountered Eldridge, who had become a clerk in the
office of the army paymaster, Major Lyman Hapgood. Eldridge helped Whitman gain employment in Hapgood's office.
For more on Whitman's relationship with
Thayer and Eldridge, see David Breckenridge Donlon, "Thayer, William Wilde (1829–1896) and Charles W. Eldridge
(1837–1903)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
1. On May 7, 1884, Whitman requested "a good photo (or other picture)" of Father Edward Thompson Taylor (1793–1871) for use in his article, but Whitman's remembrance, "Father Taylor and Oratory," did not appear until 1887. [back]