The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: David McKay to Walt Whitman, 6 April 1891
Date: April 6, 1891
Whitman Archive ID: upa.00128
Source: Walt Whitman Collection, 1842–1957, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. 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.
Related item: At the bottom of this letter, Whitman wrote his response to McKay's query. See upa.00227.
Contributors to digital file: Ryan Furlong, Amanda J. Axley, Marie Ernster, Paige Wilkinson, and Stephanie Blalock
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Successor to REES WELSH & CO.'S Miscellaneous Business
OLD BOOKS IN ANY QUANTITY BOUGHT, SOLD AND
EXCHANGED.
David McKay,
Publisher and Bookseller, 23 South Ninth Street.
Philadelphia,
4. 6 1891
Friend Walt
What are the dates for 2 books you are not credited with
Yours
David
Correspondent:
David McKay (1860–1918) took
over Philadelphia-based publisher Rees Welsh's bookselling and publishing
businesses in 1881–82. McKay and Rees Welsh published the 1881 edition of
Leaves of Grass after opposition from the Boston
District Attorney prompted James R. Osgood & Company of Boston, the original publisher,
to withdraw. McKay also went on to publish Specimen Days &
Collect, November Boughs, Gems
from Walt Whitman, Complete Prose Works,
and the final Leaves of Grass, the so-called deathbed edition. For
more information about McKay, see Joel Myerson, "McKay, David (1860–1918)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).