Title: Walt Whitman to Sylvester Baxter, 11 June 1885
Date: June 11, 1885
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00481
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), 3:394. 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 and Kyle Barton
328 Mickle Street
Camden N J1
June 11 '85
Received from Sylvester Baxter (Outing magazine Boston) Twelve Dollars for piece2—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Sylvester Baxter (1850–1927)
was on the staff of the Boston Herald. Apparently he met
Whitman for the first time when the poet delivered his Lincoln address in Boston
in April, 1881; see Rufus A. Coleman, "Whitman and Trowbridge," PMLA 63 (1948), 268. Baxter wrote many newspaper columns
in praise of Whitman's writings, and in 1886 attempted to obtain a pension for
the poet. For more, see Christopher O. Griffin, "Baxter, Sylvester [1850–1927]," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
1. This letter is addressed: Sylvester Baxter | Outing Office | 175 Tremont St: | Boston Mass:. It is postmarked: Philadelphia | Pa | Jun 11 85 | 7 30 PM. [back]
2. "The Voice of the Rain" (see the letter from Whitman to Baxter of June 9, 1885). [back]