Oct. 31, '711
Dear Mr. Tabor:
I write a line to introduce the bearer, Rev. George L. Chase, of Minesota,2—who is interested in the history of Erasmus.3
I like Mr. Chase much—have known him many years,4 & cordially commend him to you.
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Stephen J. W. Tabor
(1815–1883) was a newspaper editor and county judge in Independence, Iowa,
before being appointed Auditor of the United States Treasury, a post he held
from 1863 to 1878. He was also a book collector whose private library included
6,000 volumes. For more about Tabor, see Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth
Century (New York: The Century History Company, 1903), 4:258.
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Introducing Rev. Mr. Chase | Hon. Stephen J. W. Tabor | 4th Auditor. | West
Wing. | Treasury Building. [back]
- 2. George L. Chase,
Episcopal minister from Minnesota. [back]
- 3. Desiderius Erasmus
(1467–1536) was a Renaissance scholar and theologian. [back]
- 4. Chase is mentioned
twice in Whitman's notebooks (see Notebooks and Unpublished
Prose Manuscripts, ed. Edward Grier [New York: New York University
Press, 1984], 2:828; and Daybooks and Notebooks, ed.
William White [New York: New York University Press, 1978], 1:61). In the Reed
Collection are a number of letters from Chase to his future wife, discussing
Whitman and documenting their friendship. See Jon Miller, "'Dear Miss Ella':
George L. Chase's Whitman-Inspired Love Letters," Walt Whitman
Quarterly Review 19 (Fall 2001), 68–89, which reprints many of
Chase's letters. [back]