The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to William Livingston Alden, 10 August 1867
Date: August 10, 1867
Whitman Archive ID: prc.00091
Source: The location of this manuscript is unknown. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Ted Genoways (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2004), 7:27. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman, Jonathan Y. Cheng, Elizabeth Lorang, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Nicole Gray, and Kenneth M. Price
Washington, D.C.,
10 August 1867.
W. L. Alden.
My dear Sir:
Your note has been received.1—Accept—for yourself, the Citizen, & Gen. Halpine2—My sincere thanks for your kindness. I fully appreciate it.
As I have not at my control, at this moment, any bound copies of Leaves of Grass, would you allow me to send you a copy in paper I forward it by same mail with this.3
I send best remembrances to the General.
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
William Livingston Alden
(1837–1908) was associate editor of the New York Citizen.
Notes:
1. Alden wrote Whitman on August 9, 1867, to inform him that "Rosetti's article" would appear in the Citizen the following day (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Thursday, December 6, 1888). No copies of the Citizen prior to 1869 have survived, but Whitman appears to have read and enjoyed the article. [back]
2. Charles G. Halpine (1829–1868) was a journalist, soldier, and politician. He joined the 69th New York Regiment at the outbreak of the war and was brevetted brigadier general for gallantry. Known as a humorist and author, under the pseudonym Pvt. Miles O'Reilley, Halpine was also a well-known journalist who wrote for the New York Herald, and later became editor of The Leader. It would appear that, in 1867, Halpine was writing for the Citizen. [back]
3. This is in response to Alden's request for "a copy of your book—a thing which I don't possess." [back]