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Dear W. W.1
Just as my MS pkg was consigned to steamer Roman of the Warren Line, comes crawling
along—like a fly in molasses— one of Fred. W. Wilson's2 idiotic little letters asking to see the MS. before
agreeing to give
me copyright, and assure me seeing of proofs &c—mere trifles. I distrust him, & think him
incompetent. However, if Gardner3 declines we will fall back on
the tortoise. He can't say I did not give him every chance.
I am glad that you had Bucke's4 Sarrazin5
translation too, if it pleased you. It is first rate,
gives parts I omitted, & good ones too.6 It is just as I told you: the article is
strong & adequate. The Dr. in his haste (& I suspect you slyly inveigled him as you
did me) misses the point twice. Sarrazin does not say that Hegel is the greatest of
the philosophers after Whitman: he says Hegel is the
greatest &c according to Whitman. Après means after; but d'après (used by Sarrazin: I saw it in the article at Harvard Library
again to-day) means according to, or in the opinion of, on the authority of, & always
embodies that idea.
Again our good Dr. misses it in the condor business. Here is Sarrazin: He says where the
details are removed from Leaves of Grass.
vous vous apercevez immédiatement que la vie et la variété se sont
retirées du tableau et qu'il n'est plus traversé que de grands et
monotones coups d'ailes de condor.you
perceive immediately that the life of the variety themselves have taken away
from the picture, and that it is no more traversed except by great & monotonous
strokes of wing of the condor. (But Dr. B. gives the exact opposite of
the true rendering in his translation)
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I don't think I have seen the article by O'Connor7 you allude to.
very cold to-day. Feb. 25 '89
What a fine Lowell8 number the Critic has (too much taffy;
but good reading some of it.)
Bucke's "a banditti of politicians" is funny; in English it means "a robbers of
politicians."!
If I had tho't we cd have got a [illegible].
I shd have taken several days (instead of two hours) & made a careful exclusive translation of the bulk of
the piece. However, it is just as well.
It grieves me much, dear friend I hear of those pains
"inside night & day." Dear me, can't you get rid of 'em?
affec,
Billy K.
(that's the way they called me out West.)
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Correspondent:
William Sloane Kennedy, biographer,
editor, and critic, was one of Whitman's most devoted friends and admirers.
Kennedy first met Whitman in Philadelphia in 1880 while working on the staff of
the American. He soon became a frequent correspondent and
visitor to Whitman's Camden, New Jersey, home, a constant contributor of small
gifts, and the author of several essays and newspaper articles in praise of
Whitman. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan,"Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia,
ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing,
1998).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addresssed:
Walt Whitman | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: North Cambridge, Sta. Mass
| Feb | 26 | 8am | 1889; Camden, N.J. | Feb | 27 | 10am | Rec'd. [back]
- 2. Frederick W. Wilson was a
member of the Glasgow firm of Wilson & McCormick that published the 1883
British edition of Specimen Days and Collect. [back]
- 3. Alexander Gardner (1821–1882)
of Paisley, Scotland, was a publisher who reissued a number of books by and
about Whitman; he ultimately published William Sloane Kennedy's Reminiscences of Walt Whitman in 1896 after a long and
contentious battle with Kennedy over editing the book. Gardner published and
co-edited the Scottish Review from 1882 to 1886. [back]
- 4. Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a
Canadian physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and
meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke
claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him
to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany.
Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt
Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one
of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of
Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. Gabriel Sarrazin (1853–1935)
was a translator and poet from France who commented positively not only on
Whitman's work but also on Poe's. Whitman later corresponded with Sarrazin and
apparently liked the critic's work on Leaves of
Grass—Whitman even had Sarrazin's chapter on his book translated
twice. For more on Sarrazin, see Carmine Sarracino, "Sarrazin, Gabriel (1853–1935)," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 6. Whitman asked both Kennedy
and the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke to translate into English an
abstract of Sarrazin's "Poétes moderns de l'amérique, Walt Whitman,"
La Nouvelle Revue, 52 (May 1888), 164–84 (see
Whitman's letter to Kennedy of January 22, 1889,
and to Bucke of January 27, 1889). Sarrazin's
piece has been reprinted in an English translation by Harrison S. Morris in In Re (pp. 159–94). [back]
- 7. William Douglas O'Connor
(1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet
The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866.
For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 8. James Russell Lowell
(1819–1891), one of Whitman's famous poetic contemporaries, was committed
to conventional poetic form, which was clearly at odds with Whitman's more
experimental form. Still, as editor of the Atlantic
Monthly, he published Whitman's "Bardic Symbols," probably at Ralph
Waldo Emerson's suggestion. Lowell later wrote a tribute to Abraham Lincoln
titled "Commemoration Ode," which has often, since its publication, been
contrasted with Whitman's own tribute, "O Captain! My Captain!" [back]