Title: Walt Whitman to Nathan Hale, Jr., 1 June 1842
Date: June 1, 1842
Whitman Archive ID: yal.00246
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.
Editorial note: The annotation, "Walter Whitman Ans. July 9. '42," is in an unknown hand.
Contributors to digital file: Cristin Noonan, Amanda J. Axley, Marie Ernster, Erel Michaelis, Kassie Jo Baron, Jeff Hill, and Stephanie Blalock
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The undersigned takes the liberty of offering you the accompanying MS for your "Miscellany;"1—The price is $8.—
The undersigned would be glad to furnish you with an article for each number, if it would be agreeable to you.—
Please forward an answer to the address given herewith, stating whether you accept or decline.
Walter Whitman
June 1st2
W.W.
12 Center St
N.Y.
Editor "Boston Miscellany"
[illegible]
Correspondent:
Nathan Hale, Jr.
(1818–1871) served as the editor of the Boston
Miscellany from 1842–1843. He was the son of journalist and newspaper publisher Nathan
Hale. Whitman wrote Hale twice in an effort to sell the story "The Angel of Tears," but Hale declined to publish it.
1. The Boston Miscellany of Literature and Fashion was a monthly magazine that ran from 1842–1843. Nathan Hale Jr. served as editor in 1842 and resigned the position to Henry Tuckerman at the end of the year. The magazine printed literary contributions from writers like James Russell Lowell, Edgar Allan Poe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. The magazine also printed fashion plates and music (Frank L. Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741–1930 [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958], 1: 718–720). [back]
2. Whitman wrote Hale again on June 14, 1842, to inquire if the Boston Miscellany would publish "The Angel of Tears." [back]