Camden1
Sunday noon
Yours rec'd—yes indeed it is a cheering & very important victory2—most important coming just at this nick of
time—vivifies Rees Welsh much (as I saw yesterday) & gives an absolute
cement to what perhaps was not so entirely set as I could
have wished—though as I get along with them, & versed, I am well satisfied
with R W & Co. and my prospect with them—Though Thursday & Friday last
were pretty dark, big clouds, big enemies on the horizon, some bad letters sent them
threats from the "Society," they did not flinch but went on getting out the new
edition as fast as possible—Now of course they feel
entrenched & good heart3—The printing is done
at Sherman & Co's. cor 7th & Cherry, the best printing office in
Philadelphia. My L of G plates having been sent on there from Rand & Avery's,
Boston—& I shall begin on "Specimen Days" there in about a week—
I havn't emerged from the house to-day, (it is July heat, oppressive)—but I
shouldn't wonder if the L of G. officially ordered to pass
unmolested through the mails was itemized generally over the land
everywhere to-day, as the Telegraphic Associated Press chargé here in Phila
told me yesterday afternoon he intended to send it generally—the Phila: Press here is very friendly—it has three short pieces
in to-day, a first-rate acc't of the P O Dept. decision & commending it
editorially—Talcott Williams4 on the P[ress] is an
ardent friend—
William, I wish you would get an authentic copy of the P. O. letter order & send
me soon, if you can—When you see Col. Ingersoll say he
dont know how deeply he has served me, & at a time when it told best—
W W
Notes
- 1. This letter is endorsed:
"Answ'd July 10/82 | [Answ'd July] 12 [82]." It is addressed: Wm D O'Connor |
Life Saving Service Bureau | Washington | D C. It is postmarked: Camden | Jul |
9 | 7 PM | N.J.; Washington, D.C. | Jul | 10 | 5 AM | 1882 | Recd. [back]
- 2. On July 7 O'Connor wrote
jubilantly: "The Boston Postmaster's action on Chainey's lecture is reversed and
disapproved! Furthermore in the letter to Tobey, the Postmaster General takes
the ground that your book must pass unmolested through the
mails—that a book, generally accepted by the public, admitted
into libraries, and accepted by the literary class, cannot be brought under the
operation of the statutes respecting taboo matter. This is cheering. We owe this
victory to the tact, bonhomie, energy and gallantry of Ingersoll, who put the
case to the Department in the best manner possible" (Charles E. Feinberg
Collection, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.). [back]
- 3. On July 5 Rees Welsh & Co. wrote to Whitman: "Much
to our surprise are threatened with an action. Please call at your earliest
convenience and we will talk over it." [back]
- 4. Talcott Williams
(1849–1928), a journalist, worked for the New York Sun and World, and became an editorial writer
on the Springfield Republican in 1879. He joined the
staff of the Philadelphia Press in 1881. In 1912 he
became director of the School of Journalism at Columbia University. See also
Elizabeth Dunbar's Talcott Williams: Gentleman of the Fourth
Estate (1936) and Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman
in Camden (Boston: Small, Maynard, 1906), 1:202. The Philadelphia Press vigorously supported the poet against the Boston
censorship both in its news columns and in its editorials. A front-page story on
July 15 quoted at length the defense of Leaves of Grass
offered by the Reverend James Morrow, "a prominent Methodist."For more
information on Talcott 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). [back]