The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to J. P. Loftus, 19 December 1887
Date: December 19, 1887
Whitman Archive ID: pea.00001
Source: Phillips Exeter Academy. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 4:137. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Ryan Furlong, Stefan Schöberlein, Caterina Bernardini, Stephanie Blalock, Marie Ernster, and Paige Wilkinson
328 Mickle Street
Camden New Jersey1
Dec. 19 '87
I send you same mail with this, Leaves of Grass and Two Rivulets—2 vols.2 Please send me a card soon as rec'd notifying me—pay rec'd—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
J. P. Loftus was an
instructor at Riverview Academy in Poughkeepsie in 1887. He paid $5 for the
volumes (Whitman's Commonplace Book; Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the
Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.).
Notes:
1. This postal card is addressed: J. P. Loftus | Poughkeepsie | New York. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Dec 19 1887 | 4:30 PM. [back]
2. During the centennial celebration of the U.S. in 1876, Whitman reissued the fifth edition of Leaves of Grass in the repackaged form of a "Centennial Edition" and "Author's Edition," with most copies personally signed by the poet. Two Rivulets was published as a companion volume to the book. Notable for its experimentations in form, typography, and printing convention, Whitman's two-volume set marks an important departure from previous publications of Leaves of Grass. For more information, see Frances E. Keuling-Stout, " Leaves of Grass, 1876, Author's Edition," "Two Rivulets, Author's Edition [1876]," and "Preface to Two Rivulets [1876]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]