Title: Walt Whitman to Karl Knortz, 10 January 1884
Date: January 10, 1884
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00476
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), 3:362. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schöberlein, Kyle Barton, and Nicole Gray
431 Stevens Street
Camden New Jersey
Jan: 10 '84
Dear Sir
Yes, I have rec'd the Dresden pamphlet1—I enclose you a late article of mine from the Critic2—I keep about as usual in health this winter—How do you get on with your new book?
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Karl Knortz
(1841–1918) was born in Prussia and came to the U.S. in 1863. He was the
author of many books and articles on German-American affairs and was
superintendent of German instruction in Evansville, Ind., from 1892 to 1905. See
The American-German Review 13 (December 1946),
27–30. His first published criticism of Whitman appeared in the New York
Staats-Zeitung Sonntagsblatt on December 17, 1882,
and he worked with Thomas W. H. Rolleston on the first book-length translation
of Whitman's poetry, published as Grashalme in 1889. For
more information about Knortz, see Walter Grünzweig, "Knortz, Karl (1841–1918)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
1. Rolleston's lecture (see the letter from Whitman to William D. O'Connor of August 29, 1883). [back]
2. "A Backward Glance on My Own Road." [back]