Please find enclosed my check for $5.—for a copy of "Leaves of Grass."1 A little later on I shall also subscribe for "Two Rivulets";2 but for the present content myself with the first named. My delay is because of my intention to canvas my friends and secure additional subscribers and then remit to you in a body.
I am connected with the Portchester Journal3 which circulates between 6 & 7000 copies. I mean to write an article of a couple of columns regarding yourself and your poems and shall close it by soliciting subscribers for your edition. Will you do me the favor of sending me a biographical sketch (to be used in the article) of your self and a spare photograph the latter to be used in illustration. Finally in soliciting the subscriptions shall we request parties to communicate direct with you or shall the 2'e receive & forward them. I sincerely trust that your health is improving & that you may yet enjoy its reestablishment
Yours Very Truly F. SeegerCorrespondent:
Dr. Ferdinand Seeger (1846–1923) was a
homeopathic physician from New York City, who once refused the Democratic
nomination for mayor in order to focus on his medical practice, where he treated
both wealthy and destitute patients (see his obituary as printed in the March
10, 1923, edition of Time). Seeger sent a check for $5
on April 18, 1876, and Whitman
forwarded two volumes on April 21, 1876 (Commonplace Book,
Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.).