The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to General James Grant Wilson, 8 December 1886
Date: December 8, 1886
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00554
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), 4:56–57. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schöberlein and Kyle Barton
328 Mickle street
Camden New Jersey
Dec: 8 '86
Dear Gen: Wilson
I have been quite unwell, or I should have ans'd you sooner. Yours of Nov. 26th, with check for Twenty Dollars, ($20) (herewith returned) was duly rec'd—Thank you most fervently, my friend—But I don't feel at all like writing a notice or biography of Halleck1—(nor indeed capacitated for it)—I met H. once in Park Place, N. Y. & remember his looks & talk—but I dont think I can write ab't him—Thank you & the Messrs: Appleton—Please send me word of the rec't of this—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
General James Grant
Wilson (see the letter from Whitman to Wilson of May 21,
1879) was the author of Bryant and His Friends
(1886). In 1888 Whitman said: "I knew Wilson very well—he was a cordial
and convincing character. . . . Wilson belongs to the conventional literary old
guard in New York" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in
Camden, Monday, August 13, 1888). On April 8,
1887, Wilson invited the poet to stay with him during his New York
visit.
Notes:
1. General Henry Wager Halleck (1815–1872) was Grant's chief of staff. This was apparently not the type of "pot-boiler" Whitman was willing to write. [back]