The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to William Sloane Kennedy, 2 [September] 1890
Date: [September] 2, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: owu.00091
Source: The Bayley-Whitman Collection, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH. The transcription presented here is derived from The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 5:79–80. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Andrew David King, Cristin Noonan, and Stephanie Blalock
Y'r card rec'd ab't piece—don't know of Williams having any mark'd Welsh blood—never heard ab't that—one of the stock names on the womens' (Williams')3 side was Kossabone (doubtless Causabone) (Jenny Kossabone my g't grandmother mother's side)4—Yes, keep it awhile, no hurry at all—If you feel to do so, send MS to me to see if points right—but do as you have a mind to—no hurry ab't piece—
W W
Correspondent:
William Sloane Kennedy
(1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also
published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography). Apparently Kennedy had called on
the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander
Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman,
in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse
indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was
"too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February
1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed: Sloane Kennedy | Belmont | Mass:. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Sep 2 | 8 PM | 90. [back]
2. The date for this postal card is based on the postmark, which indicates that Whitman misdated it. For information on Whitman's maternal ancestors, see see Gay Wilson Allen, The Solitary Singer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 596. [back]
3. Naomi [Amy] Williams (d. 1826) was the maternal grandmother of Walt Whitman. For more about Williams, see Amy M. Bawcom, "Van Velsor, Naomi [Amy] Williams [d. 1826]," Walt Whitman: An Enclycopedia, ed J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
4. Whitman believed that his maternal great-grandmother was Jenny or Mary Kossabone. But genealogy records, specifically baptism records from the Dutch Reformed Church, suggest that Whitman's maternal great-grandmother may have been Margarita Pe[e]kke Ryder instead of Jenny or Mary Kossabone. [back]