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Law Offices of
Jones, Carson & Phillips,
Rooms 426–431
Drexel Building
J. Levering Jones,
Hampton L. Carson,
Alfred L. Phillips,
John Douglass Brown, Jr.
Telephone. Dict H C Kochersperger
Philadelphia, June 27th 1890
Walt Whitman Esq.
Dear Sir
May I take the liberty on account of the anniversary of your birthday in this City at Reisser's Cafe1 to
ask you to send me an autograph letter, signed by yourself.
I have them from many literary people and you would make me happy by sending yours
Trusting you will excuse the liberty I take,
I Remain
Very Respty Yours young friend
Harry C. Kochersperger
426–31 Drexel Building
Philadelphia Pa.
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Correspondent:
Harry Clifford Kochersperger
(1871–1951) of Philadelphia, worked in the banking and brokerage
industries in Camden, New Jersey. Kochersperger and his wife Marie Edith Gane
Kochersperger (1874–1942) were the parents of at least three
daughters.
Notes
- 1. For Whitman's seventy-first
birthday, Horace Traubel and a group of Whitman's friends (including Richard
Maurice Bucke, Thomas Harned, and Daniel Brinton) arranged for a dinner on May
31, 1890, at Reisser's restaurant in Philadelphia. Compared to the festive
seventieth-birthday celebration, this one was a smaller affair with only
thirty-one guests, four of them women. For the planning of the dinner, see
Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, May 20, 1890. Traubel also offers a full description of the
event, including the speakers and the lively conversation in his entry for Saturday, May 31, 1890. [back]