Walt Whitman to the Editor of The North American Review, 9 October 1890

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to the Editor of The North American Review, 9 October 1890
Date: October 9, 1890
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: med.00850
Source: The location of this manuscript is unknown. Miller derives his transcription from a transcription of the letter published in a catalog of the American Art Association, November 5–6, 1923. The transcription presented here is derived from The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 100. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Blake Bronson-Bartlett Ryan Furlong Ian Faith Stephanie Blalock
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to the Editor of The North American Review, 9 October 1890." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 23 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: med.00850.xml (TEI)

Camden, New Jersey, Oct. 9, 1890

Y'r1 telegram rec'd2 & I send on the first piece (I am preparing two,3 one on the subject you named)—if it will do. The price is seventy five dollars ($75) and I reserve the right to print in future book. . . .

Walt Whitman

Correspondent:
The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. The journalist Charles Allen Thorndike Rice (1851–1889) edited and published the magazine in New York from 1876 until his death. Whitman's friend James Redpath joined the North American Review as managing editor in 1886. After Rice's death, Lloyd Bryce (1852–1915) became owner and editor. At the time of this letter, William Rideing (1853–1918) was assistant editor of the magazine.

Notes

1. William Henry Rideing (1853–1918) was an American newspaper editor and author who began his career at the New York Tribune, and worked at various times for the New York Times, Newark News, Springfield Republican, and Boston Journal. From 1881 to his death, Rideing was the Associate Editor of The Youth's Companion and, in 1889, became an assistant editor at the North American Review. He is also author of several books, including A Little Upstart: A Novel (Boston: Cupples, Upham, and Co. 1885), The Captured Cunarder: An Episode of the Atlantic (Boston: Copeland and Day, 1896), and George Washington (New York: Macmillan, 1916). For more information, see his obituary, "William H. Rideing, Boston Editor, Dead" in The Boston Globe (August 23, 1918), 6. [back]
2. See William H. Rideing's telegram of October 9, 1890. [back]
3. Whitman sent "Old Poets" to the North American Review. He returned proof on October 18 and was paid $75 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). The article appeared in the November 1890 issue. [back]