William Sloane Kennedy to Walt Whitman, 9 July 1889

About This Item

Title: William Sloane Kennedy to Walt Whitman, 9 July 1889
Date: July 9, 1889
Creator(s): William Sloane Kennedy
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03025
Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Kirby Little Caterina Bernardini Breanna Himschoot Stephanie Blalock
Cite this page: Kennedy, William Sloane. "William Sloane Kennedy to Walt Whitman, 9 July 1889." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 19 September 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.03025.xml (TEI)

loc.03025.002.jpg July 9th '891 Well-beloved friend:—

Thy card rec'd2 & welcomed. I too have rec'd wht I tho't rather cheery letters fr. Mrs. O'C.3 although mentioning her meagre funds. I have offered & agreed to return her $5.00—one of Wm's4 subscriptions, thinking one of my books wd be enough for her. We have invited her to come out & see us when she passes thro' Boston & may be able to advise & help her. Hope so. The wife of such a Philip Sidney5 of a man as O'C.6 demands chivalrous treatment if we wd emulate the virtues of him, so I think & shall act. Am feeling worse in health this summer & spring than is usual w. me.

loc.03025.001.jpg Sl. Kennedy.

Correspondent:
William Sloane Kennedy (1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman, in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was "too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February 1881), 149–158. 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 postal card is addressed: Walt Whitman | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: North Cambridge Sta. | Jul 9 | 8AM | N Mass; Camden, NJ | Jul | 10 | 6am | 1889 | Rec'd. Whitman included this postal card as an enclosure in his July 10, 1889, letter to the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke. [back]
2. Kennedy is likely referring to Whitman's letter of July 7, 1889. [back]
3. Ellen M. "Nelly" O'Connor (1830–1913) was the wife of William D. O'Connor (1832–1889), one of Whitman's staunchest defenders. Before marrying William, Ellen Tarr was active in the antislavery and women's rights movements as a contributor to the Liberator and to a women's rights newspaper Una. Whitman dined with the O'Connors frequently during his Washington years. Though Whitman and William O'Connor would temporarily break off their friendship in late 1872 over Reconstruction policies with regard to emancipated African Americans, Ellen would remain friendly with Whitman. The correspondence between Whitman and Ellen is almost as voluminous as the poet's correspondence with William. Three years after William O'Connor's death, Ellen married the Providence businessman Albert Calder. For more on Whitman's relationship with the O'Connors, see Dashae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas [1832–1889]" and Lott's "O'Connor (Calder), Ellen ('Nelly') M. Tarr (1830–1913)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
4. 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]
5. Philip Sidney (1554–1586) was an English poet. He authored the sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella and the popular romance, the Arcadia. [back]
6. 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]