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Walt Whitman to George Chainey, 26 June 1882

My dear friend1

I to-day mail you a copy of "Leaves of Grass" as a little gift & testimonial of thanks. Please send me word if it is safely delivered. I sent you a little package of printed sheets last week by mail.

Walt Whitman

Notes

  • 1. Probably Whitman met George Chainey, the publisher of This World (Boston), in Boston in 1881. On December 22, 1881, the poet sent one of Chainey's sermons to Susan Stafford (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Chainey printed on June 17, 1882, "Keep Off the Grass," a lecture which he had delivered on June 11, as well as "To a Common Prostitute." Chainey printed Whitman's letter and one from O'Connor on July 1. Interestingly, O'Connor deplored Chainey's stupidity in a letter to Whitman on July 13, although he had been furnishing Chainey with information; see Chainey's letter to O'Connor, dated July 11 (Trent Collection, Duke University). Chainey discussed the censorship on July 1, July 6, and November 4; see Roger Asselineau, L'Évolution de Walt Whitman (1955), 250–251n. Chainey lectured on Leaves of Grass in 1884 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, June 23). [back]
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