loc.02096.002_large.jpg
Camden NJ—US America1
Sept: 27 '91
Y'rs of 8th came safe with pay for the books,2 (best thanks)—I
send copy of the complete works,3 (for Maurice4)—&
copies unbound of the little "Good–Bye"5 with
more—Others will follow, especially a new
fuller version of L of G. now in press6
—I am physically an almost complete
wreck (right arm & mentality & fair spirits left)—Respects & love to you
& y'rs
Walt Whitman
loc.02096.001_large.jpg
Correspondent:
Henry Buxton Forman (1842–1917), also known as
Harry Buxton Forman, was most notably the biographer and editor of Percy Shelley
and John Keats. On February 21, 1872, Buxton sent
a copy of R. H. Horne's The Great Peace-Maker: A Sub-marine
Dialogue (London, 1872) to Whitman. This poetic account of the laying
of the Atlantic cable has a foreword written by Forman. After his death,
Forman's reputation declined primarily because, in 1934, booksellers Graham
Pollard and John Carter published An Enquiry into the Nature
of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets, which exposed Forman as a
forger of many first "private" editions of poetry.
Notes
- 1. This postal card is
addressed: H Buxton Forman | 46 Marlborough Hill | St John's Wood | London
England | NW. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Sep28 | 12 PM | 91;
Philadelphia,
P.A. | Sep28 | 3PM | 91 | [illegible]. [back]
- 2. In Forman's letter of September 8, 1891, he sent "about 15 dollars" for
"'Good bye, my Fancy!' [...] in cloth as issued, with your name & mine
written in it if the old indulgent mood holds, and two copies of the untrimmed
sheets not bound. Then I want, if it is to be had, six copies of 'A Backward
Glance' as printed on thin paper to be annexed to L. of G. (pocket book
edition)—they need not be stitched or done up any way, but on one I should
like your name & mine on the title–leaf. There are several minor
works, or rather separate works, which I fancy you still have, & of which
one copy each similarly inscribed would be very welcome: These are 'Passage to
India,' 'Democratic Vistas,' 'After All &c.,' & 'As a Strong Bird.'" He
also requested "the big book—Complete Poems and Prose" for his youngest
son, Maurice Buxton Forman, who was about to embark upon international
travels. [back]
- 3. Whitman's Complete Poems & Prose (1888), a volume Whitman often referred to
as the "big book," was published by the poet himself—in an arrangement
with publisher David McKay, who allowed Whitman to use the plates for both Leaves of Grass and Specimen
Days—in December 1888. With the help of Horace Traubel, Whitman made
the presswork and binding decisions for the volume. Frederick Oldach bound the
book, which included a profile photo of the poet on the title page. For more
information on the book, see Ed Folsom, Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman: A Catalog and
Commentary (University of Iowa: Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, 2005). [back]
- 4. Maurice Buxton Forman, H.
Buxton Forman's son, was a postal worker in England, a bibliographer, and an
editor. He was posthumously implicated in his father's literary counterfeit
enterprise. [back]
- 5. 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]
- 6. The 1891–1892 Leaves of Grass was copyrighted in 1891 and published by
Phildelphia publisher David McKay in 1892. This volume, often referred to as the
"deathbed" edition, reprints, with minor revisions, the 1881 text from the
plates of Boston publisher James R. Osgood. Whitman also includes his two
annexes in the book. The first annex, called "Sands at Seventy," consisted of
sixty-five poems that had originally appeared in November
Boughs (1888); while the second, "Good-Bye my Fancy," was a collection
of thirty-one short poems taken from the gathering of prose and poetry published
under that title by McKay in 1891, along with a prose "Preface Note to 2d
Annex." Whitman concluded the 1891–92 volume with his prose essay "A
Backward Glance o'er Travel'd Roads," which had originally appeared in November Boughs. For more information on this volume of
Leaves, see R.W. French, "Leaves of Grass, 1891–1892, Deathbed
Edition," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed.
J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing,
1998). [back]