The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Talcott Williams, 11 August 1887
Date: August 11, 1887
Whitman Archive ID: med.00821
Source: The location of this manuscript is unknown. Miller derives his transcription from the Anderson Galleries, May 20, 1915. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 6:43. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Ryan Furlong, Stefan Schöberlein, Caterina Bernardini, and Stephanie Blalock
Camden
Aug. 11, 1887
Davis's report of me and my talk, in re the Swinburne article,1 is very cute and is satisfactory to me every way.
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Talcott Williams
(1849–1928) was associated with the New York Sun
and World as well as the Springfield Republican before he became the editor of the Philadelphia Press in 1879. His newspaper vigorously defended Whitman
in news articles and editorials after the Boston censorship of 1882. For more
information about Williams, see Philip W. Leon, "Williams, Talcott (1849–1928)," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. In the August issue of The Fortnightly Review, Swinburne repudiated his earlier praise of Whitman. Apparently, a reporter named Davis from the Philadelphia Press, of which Talcott Williams was the editor, questioned Whitman on his reactions. The interview appeared in the Press on August 3, 1887. [back]