Camden1
1883 March 31 noon
My dear friend
I send you the second proofs—look over carefully for technicals, misspelling of
names, & in the Italian text on Page 109 &c2—but make no changes or alterations. If we were to begin the setting of the
copy de novo you should certainly be obeyed in every detail
& minutest particular—& I know I should like the result well enough.
But I like wonderfully well the whole presentations just as they appear
here—& I know you will too, either right off, or soon as you get
accustomed to them. Besides the matter itself, after being
faithfully given as to text & with typographic cleanliness & propriety, makes remaining points not worth dwelling on. Taken together
the Introductory Letter and the G[ood] G[ray] P[oet] are so tremendous &
vehement, so beautiful & orbic in themselves—so fitting for the body of
the volume (almost its heart & lungs)—so honest & subtle, as well as
stupendous, a eulogy and dissertation, on L of G , & on certain primary & spinal literary laws—so assuring a
pedestal for my future fame—& as here printed so satisfactory in their
type, style & paragraphing &c. as they stand that any
change in those particulars would be worse than unnecessary—would be
fatuous3—
I keep well—Write me often as you can—tell me all the news—your own
movements as much as you can—
Did you get the parcel of books?4
Walt Whitman
Keep the proof two days after you get it if you wish5—
Notes
- 1. This letter is endorsed:
"Answ'd April 1/83." It is addressed: Wm D O'Connor | Care Dr. W F Channing | 93
Congdon Street | Providence | Rhode Island | p o box | 393. It is postmarked:
Camden | Mar | 31 | 12 M | N.J.; Providence | Apr | 1 | (?) AM | (?). [back]
- 2. A series of quotations
from Dante appear on this page of Bucke's book. [back]
- 3. Despite Whitman's praise,
O'Connor, on April 1, felt "dreadfully at the prospect your letter opens, of my paragraphing being
changed" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Tuesday, September 4th, 1888 , 260). [back]
- 4. See the letter from
Whitman to O'Connor of March 29, 1883. [back]
- 5. The typesetting of Bucke's
biography was completed on March 31 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E.
Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.). This was Whitman's book in every detail: he
altered the proofs at will. On March 20, Bucke, whose role was simply to
acquiesce in Whitman's changes, wrote: "I open and read these parcels of proof
in fear and trembling (you must go as easy as you can, you are the terrible
surgeon with the knife & saw and saw the patient). You left out my remarks
on 'Children of Adam', I believe they were good but I acquiesce—your
additions are excellent as they have been all through" (Feinberg Collection). On
May 28 Bucke was pleased with the book he and Whitman had produced: "I believe
it will do, and if it will the Editor will deserve more credit than the
Author—I am really surprised at the tact and judgement you have displayed
in putting my rough M. S. into shape and I am more than satisfied with all you have done"
(Feinberg Collection). Bucke, however, may not have been quite so pleased with
Whitman's high-handed treatment of his book as his letters to the poet indicate.
For in a letter on August 19 to O'Connor, who on August 16 objected to "several
omissions and commissions," Bucke wrote: "I do not care to go into these matters
by letter but when you come [to Canada] I will make every thing clear to your
comprehention" (The Library of Congress, Washington D.C.). [back]