328 Mickle St:
Camden New Jersey1
May 22 '91
Dear Sir,
If the paper is bo't & any commencem't made in printing the 400 "Nov: Boughs"2 all
right—If nothing, stop it & wait for further orders.
The press work paper &c: of the little "Good-Bye my Fancy"3 make a
first rate, good, satisfactory job—& the press work is capital.
If worth while I sh'd like the pressmen, foreman &c: to see this.
Respectfully
Walt Whitman
This is Warren Fritzinger,4 my nurse & friend—
Correspondent:
George Ferguson was the
printer who had set the type for Whitman's November
Boughs (1888).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Ferguson | Printer | 15 North 7th Street | Philadelphia. [back]
- 2. Whitman's November Boughs—a book of prose and poetry—was published
in 1888 by David McKay. The book included a long prefatory essay, "A Backward
Glance O'er Travel'd Roads," a collection of sixty short poems under the title
"Sands at Seventy," and reprints of several articles already published
elsewhere. For more information on November Boughs, see
James E. Barcus Jr., "November Boughs [1888]," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. Whitman's book Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) was his last miscellany, and it
included both poetry and short prose works commenting on poetry, aging, and
death, among other topics. Thirty-one poems from the book were later printed as
"Good-Bye my Fancy" in Leaves of Grass
(1891–1892), the last edition of Leaves of Grass
published before Whitman's death in March 1892. For more information see, Donald
Barlow Stauffer, "'Good-Bye my Fancy' (Second Annex) (1891)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 4. Frank Warren Fritzinger
(1867–1899), known as "Warry," took Edward Wilkins's place as Whitman's
nurse, beginning in October 1889. Fritzinger and his brother Harry were the sons
of Henry Whireman Fritzinger (about 1828–1881), a former sea captain who
went blind, and Almira E. Fritzinger. Following Henry Sr.'s death, Warren and
his brother—having lost both parents—became wards of Mary O. Davis,
Whitman's housekeeper, who had also taken care of the sea captain and who
inherited part of his estate. A picture of Warry is displayed in the May 1891
New England Magazine (278). See Joann P. Krieg, "Fritzinger, Frederick Warren (1866–1899),"
Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), 240. [back]