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328 Mickle Street
Camden NJ
Sept: 15 '871
Evn'g—The package of photos. came this afternoon. Shall sign & return
them to-morrow or next day—all the points proposed by you &
Mr C2 are satisfactory3
Walt Whitman
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Correspondent:
William Carey
(1858–1901) worked for the editorial department of The
Century Magazine. The September 1887 issue of the monthly advertised
signed photographs of Whitman (taken by George C. Cox earlier that summer). See
also Whitman's letter to Cox of September 15,
1887.
Notes
- 1. This postal card is
addressed: William Carey | Century Office Union Square | New York City. It is
postmarked: Camden, N.J. | SEP 15 | 8 PM | 87; II | 9 16 87 | 6 A | (?); P.O. |
9–18 87 | 2 A | N.Y. [back]
- 2. George Collins "G. C." Cox
(1851–1903) was a well-known celebrity photographer who had taken
photographs of Whitman when the poet was in New York to give his lecture on Abraham Lincoln (his Lincoln lecture)
in April 1887. "The Laughing
Philosopher," one of the most famous photographs of Whitman, was taken
by Cox in 1887. [back]
- 3. George Cox proposed selling
signed copies of his photographs of Walt Whitman. However, when the September
1887 issue of Century appeared with an advertisement,
Whitman still had not seen proofs, much less signed the photographs. He wrote
John H. Johnston on September 1, 1887, "He
advertises . . . to sell my photo, with autograph. The latter is forged, &
the former illegal & unauthorized." The disagreement was quickly resolved,
and Whitman signed photographs for Cox and returned them. [back]