Walt Whitman to Frederick Oldach, [15 February 1889]

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Frederick Oldach, [15 February 1889]
Date: [February 15, 1889]
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: med.00863
Source: The location of this manuscript is unknown. Miller derives his transcription from a transcription made by Horace Traubel. See With Walt Whitman in Camden, vol. 4, ed. Scully Bradley (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1953), 156. The transcription presented here is derived from The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 290. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Blake Bronson-Bartlett Caterina Bernardini Stefan Schöberlein Stephanie Blalock
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Frederick Oldach, [15 February 1889]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 09 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: med.00863.xml (TEI)

[2.15.1889]1 Mr. Oldach, Bookbinder 1215 Filbert St. Phila.

Please put a plain strong binding on this Vol: will cost me ab't 50 or 60 cts—want something will last hard usage, especially a good durable back—No particular fancy or beauty expected. I leave it to you what style. The label for back-lettering will be found pinn'd enclosed in front of the Vol:—

W. W. 328 Mickle Street Camden

Correspondent:
Frederick Oldach (1823–1907) was a German bookbinder whose Philadelphia firm bound Whitman's November Boughs (1888) and Complete Poems & Prose (1888), as well as the special seventieth-birthday issue of Leaves of Grass (1889).

Notes

1. Traubel made a transcription of this letter on the day it was written. See Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Friday, February 15, 1889. [back]