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).


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