The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to John Swinton, 26 February [1875]
Date: February 26, [1875]
Whitman Archive ID: yal.00119
Source: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman, Jonathan Y. Cheng, Elizabeth Lorang, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Stephanie Blalock, Marie Ernster, and Amanda J. Axley
 image 1 |  image 2 |
431 Stevens st.
cor West.
Camden,
N. Jersey.1
Feb. 26.2
Will write you just a line to-day—Have had a perverse two months, past—frequent bad spells, (some very bad)—general strength however, pretty fair—get outdoors a little most every day. Spirits good. Write soon, or come personally
—W W
Correspondent:
Scottish-born John Swinton (1829–1901), a
journalist and friend of Karl Marx, became acquainted with Whitman during the
Civil War. Swinton, managing editor of the New York
Times, frequented Pfaff's beer cellar, where he probably met Whitman.
Whitman's correspondence with Swinton began on February
23, 1863. Swinton's enthusiasm for Whitman was unbounded. On September 25, 1868, Swinton wrote: "I am profoundly
impressed with the great humanity, or genius, that expresses itself through you.
I read this afternoon in the book. I read its first division which I never
before read. I could convey no idea to you of how it affects my soul. It is more
to me than all other books and poetry." On June 23,
1874, Swinton wrote what the poet termed "almost like a love letter":
"It was perhaps the very day of the publication of the first edition of the
'Leaves of Grass' that I saw a copy of it at a newspaper stand in Fulton street,
Brooklyn. I got it, looked into it with wonder, and felt that here was something
that touched on depths of my humanity. Since then you have grown before me,
grown around me, and grown into me" (Horace Traubel, With Walt
Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, April 10, 1888). He praised Whitman in the New York Herald on April 1, 1876 (reprinted in Richard Maurice Bucke,
Walt Whitman [Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883],
36–37). Swinton was in 1874 a candidate of the Industrial Political Party
for the mayoralty of New York. From 1875 to 1883, he was with the New York Sun, and for the next four years edited the
weekly labor journal, John Swinton's Paper. When this
publication folded, he returned to the Sun. See Robert
Waters, Career and Conversation of John Swinton (Chicago:
C.H. Kerr, 1902), and Meyer Berger, The History of The New
York Times, 1851–1951 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951),
250–251. For more on Swinton, see also Donald Yannella, "Swinton, John (1829–1901)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. This postal card is addressed: John Swinton | 134 East 38th St. | New York City. It is postmarked: Camden | FEB | 26 | N. J. [back]
2. Whitman's description of his health establishes the year. See also Whitman's letter to John and Ursula Burroughs of March 2, 1875. [back]