The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Frank H. Ransom, 2 February 1881
Date: February 2, 1881
Whitman Archive ID: prc.00105
Source: Private collection of Dr. Judith K. Marquis and Keith F. Nelson. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Editorial notes: The annotation, "Walt Whitman | Feb. 2/81," is in an unknown hand. The annotation, "settled o.k. | F.H.R.," is in the hand of Frank H. Ransom.
Contributors to digital file: Natalie O'Neal and Nicole Gray
 image 1 |  image 2 |
431 Stevens Street
Camden New Jersey
Feb: 2 '81
Dear Sir
Yours of Jan: 31 just rec'd.1 No such letter of 22d, nor P.O. order has reached me—& of course none has been paid by P.O. here.2 I see that Jan: 6 I sent you my circular in answer to previous letter from you—that is the only correspondence—I have sent nothing, heard nothing, rec'd nothing since. But as in all such cases, I consider it my obligation & loss. I send the Two Volumes, to you, same mail with this—The Two embody all my works—the little Vol's being only selections from them in duplicate.
Walt Whitman
Notes:
1. See the letter from Whitman to Ransom of January 6, 1881. No letters from Ransom to Whitman have been located. [back]
2. Whitman made the following note in his Commonplace Book on February 2: "Sent a set Two Vols: to Frank H Ransom of D Ransom Son & Co: Medicine Warehouse, Buffalo N Y.—He writes (letter rec'd to day), that he sent me a p.o. order for $12.50 on Jan: 22—I write to-day that I have not seen or heard of any such order, but consider it my loss, & send." Below this entry, Whitman added in blue pencil: "the books—rec'd—paid (12.50)" (Daybooks and Notebooks, ed. William White [New York: New York University Press, 1977], 224). [back]