Title: Walt Whitman to James R. Osgood, 1 June 1881
Date: June 1, 1881
Whitman Archive ID: tex.00420
Source: T. E. Hanley Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 3:227–228. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schoeberlein, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Eder Jaramillo, and Nicole Gray
431 Stevens Street
Camden New Jersey
June 1 '81
My dear Mr Osgood
Yours of May 31 just rec'd—Thanking you warmly for willingness, promptness, &c. my terms are:
25 cts on every copy sold if the retail price is put at $2
30 cts on every copy sold if the retail price is put at $2.501
If these suit you the bargain is settled—you shall be fully fortified as sole publisher with all legal authority—& you can act accordingly in England—If they do not suit no harm done—the thing is off—but with perfect good feeling left on both sides.
Walt Whitman
1. This was Whitman's counterproposal to Osgood's offer of ten per cent. The publisher accepted Whitman's terms on June 3. [back]