Walt Whitman to Edward R. Pease, [21 August 1883]

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Edward R. Pease, [21 August 1883]
Date: August 21, 1883
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00449
Source: Papers of Walt Whitman (MSS 3829), Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 347–348. 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 Kirsten Clawson Nima Najafi Kianfar Nicole Gray
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Edward R. Pease, [21 August 1883]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 26 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: uva.00449.xml (TEI)

431 Stevens Street
Camden New Jersey
U S America1

In response to yours of July 20.2 I have just mailed you my two Volumes, Leaves of Grass and Specimen Days—Won't you kindly send me a postal card, notifying me, soon as they reach you safely?

Walt Whitman

Notes

1. This letter is addressed: Edw: R Pease | 17 Osnaburgh Street | Regents Park | London England. It is postmarked: Camden | Aug | 21 | 4 PM | N.J. [back]
2. According to his Commonplace Book, Whitman sent the two books on August 2, but the postmark is clearly August 21 (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Perhaps there was a delay in mailing because Whitman was staying with Smith in Germantown. In a letter to Professor Rollo G. Silver in 1934, Pease wrote: "I called on W. W. in Camden in the winter (i.e. November or December) of 1888. He was ill in bed, & I was only allowed to see him for 5 minutes. He was living in what my memory pictures as almost a slum, & his bedroom was not exactly tidy. He spoke of the devotion of Americans to the worship of the dollar, which surprised me, as his usual attitude in his writings is patriotic, & laudatory of his compatriots." See also the letter from Whitman to Elizabeth & Isabella Ford and Edward R. Pease of May 28, 1884. [back]