The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to William D. O'Connor, 19 July [1882]
Date: July 19, 1882
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00461
Source: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 3:297–298. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schoeberlein, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Eder Jaramillo, and Nicole Gray
Phila:1
July 19—
Rees Welsh & Co:'s new ed'n L of G. looks well—is a fac-simile of the Boston ed'n—announced ready by 17th (being pretty cautious printed only 1000) began to come in from the bindery late that day—Early this forenoon they were all clean'd out—hadn't a copy left2—are hurrying up their second batch—I have commenced type-setting on Specimen Days3—Keep well—awful hot weather—
W W
Notes:
1. This letter is endorsed: "Answ'd July 20/82." It is addressed: Wm D O'Connor | Life Saving Service Bureau | Washington | D C. It is postmarked: Philadelphia | Jul | 19 | 6 PM | Pa.; Washington, D.C. | Jul | 20 | 5 AM | 1882 | Recd. [back]
2. Whitman wrote in his Commonplace Book: "The first Phila ed'n. . . ready 18th—morning of 20th all exhausted—not a copy left" (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
3. Sherman & Co. began to set type on July 19. On July 23 Whitman "read first page proof 'Specimen Days'" (Whitman's Commonplace Book). [back]