The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Karl Knortz, 3 May 1887
Date: May 3, 1887
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00551
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), 4:90–91. 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, Alex Ashland, Kevin McMullen, and Stephanie Blalock
328 Mickle Street
Camden New Jersey1
May 3, '87
Your letter rec'd & welcomed as always—My visit to N Y was a hasty flash only—I am more & more wretchedly physically disabled, & feel better off here in my own den—the "Anne Gilchrist" book2 is a wonderfully well done Vol. & interesting very to me because I knew & loved Mrs. G—but I doubt whether it contains much (or any thing) for you—I can loan you my copy if you wish—I will certainly keep you posted ab't myself, or any literary movement or change or happening of my work—
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).
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed: Dr Karl Knortz | 540 East 155th Street | New York City. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | May 3 | 4:30 PM | 87; P.O. | 5–3–87 | 12(?) | N.Y. [back]
2. This reference is to Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist's (1857–1914) Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887) about the life of his mother Anne, one of Whitman's staunchest supporters in Great Britain. For more information on Whitman's relationship with Gilchrist, see "Gilchrist, Anne Burrows (1828–1885)." [back]