Walt Whitman to William James Linton, 24 February 1875
loc.02803.001_large.jpg
see notes Aug 27 1888
Camden,
Feb. 24 '75.1
My dear Linton;
I want you to have printed very nicely for me 1000 impressions of the cut, my head, to go in book.2 Herewith I send the size of sheet. If convenient I should like to see a proof, fac simile , first.
I am still holding out here—don't get well yet—& don't go under yet.
Love to you—Write immediately on receiving this.This sized sheet—print dark in color as you think they will stand, (I dont like them too weak in color).
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Correspondent:
William J. Linton
(1812–1897), a British-born wood engraver, came to the United States in
1866 and settled near New Haven, Connecticut. He illustrated the works of John
Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, and
others, wrote the "indispensable" History of Wood-Engraving in
America (1882), and edited Poetry of America,
1776–1876 (London, 1878), in which appeared eight of Whitman's
poems as well as a frontispiece engraving of the poet. According to his Threescore and Ten Years, 1820 to
1890—Recollections (1894), 216–217, Linton met with Whitman
in Washington and later visited him in Camden (which Whitman reported in his
November 9, 1873, letter to Peter Doyle): "I
liked the man much, a fine-natured, good-hearted, big fellow, . . . a true poet
who could not write poetry, much of wilfulness accounting for his neglect of form."
Notes
- 1. This draft letter is endorsed: "to W. J. Linton Feb 24 '75." [back]
- 2. During America's centennial celebration in 1876, Whitman reissued the fifth edition of Leaves of Grass in the repackaged form of a "Centennial Edition" and "Author's Edition," with most copies personally signed by the poet. For more information, see Frances E. Keuling-Stout, "Leaves of Grass, 1876, Author's Edition," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]