The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Gabriel Sarrazin, 31 December 1890
Date: December 31, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: med.00926
Source: The location of this manuscript is unknown. Edwin Haviland Miller derives his transcription from a facsimile of the letter published in the Walt Whitman Review, v (1959), 11. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 5:141. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Andrew David King, Cristin Noonan, and Stephanie Blalock
Camden New Jersey. U S America1
Tho't I w'd send a short word as I sit here late night Dec: 31 '90 & a storm out—& to-morrow a new year beginning (& I pray it will be one lucky and blessed to you)—Am here yet & much the same—when I publish any thing new I will send you—If you receive this, write & give me directions—God bless you.
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Gabriel Sarrazin (1853–1935)
was a translator and poet from France who commented positively not only on
Whitman's work but also on Poe's. Whitman later corresponded with Sarrazin and
apparently liked the critic's work on Leaves of
Grass—Whitman even had Sarrazin's chapter on his book translated
twice. For more on Sarrazin, see Carmine Sarracino, "Sarrazin, Gabriel (1853–1935)," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. This postcard appeared at an auction in 2017, and the message side of the postcard appeared in the auction catalog. We checked Edwin Haviland Miller's transcription against the photograph but were unable to see the address side of the postcard, which is likely now in a private collection. See RR Fine Autographs & Artifacts (October 11, 2017), p. 146. [back]