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Sunday Eve 7 1/2 oc1
Sept—20 '91
Belmont Mass.
Dear Poet:
I hope you dont think my love and thought of W. W the less for my not
writing oftener. Somehow I have rather a dislike to it. I had a little note fr.
Burroughs2 in a basket of grapes he sent me. I have been editorializing
(big business!(over the left)) a little lately—editorials on
"Dynamite Weather," and "A Big American Flag"
(incident of flowers let fall from folds of big unfurling flag at Springfield). You may
have noticed, too, verses to J.B. & Marryat3 article.
We have passed quietly, & happily thro' the summer
(Dont you, dear cripple, long for that never to return buoyancy of youth—the
elastic giant-strong days of youth, sometimes?
But never mind, each stage of life has its glories)
My sister from Ohio is with us today.4 She has room with friends in Boston,
& is to study at the Art School this year. I see
Lowelliana5 continue to pour forth.
Baxter6 gave me yr. message.7
Accept my hearty love & affectionate good wishes.
Shd be glad of one of those nice little bulletin cards from you.
I got so used to them. I feel desolate without them.
There was'nt much of the hero or pioneer in Lowell—but
yet he was precious for pure character, manly
probity of life & humor.
W S Kennedy
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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 letter is addressed:
Walt Whitman | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: BELMONT | SEP | 21 | 1891
| MASS.; CAMDEN, N.J. | SEP2[illegible]
| 9AM | 91 | RECD. [back]
- 2. Kennedy is referring to the
naturalist John Burroughs (1837–1921), who met Whitman on the streets of
Washington, D.C., in 1864. After returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman
commenced what was to become a lifelong correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs
was magnetically drawn to Whitman. However, the correspondence between the two
men is, as Burroughs acknowledged, curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would
write several books involving or devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study
(1896), and Accepting the Universe (1924). For more on
Whitman's relationship with Burroughs, see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. Frederick Marryat
(1792–1848) was a novelist, Royal Navy Officer, and a friend of the
British novelist Charles Dickens. Marryat is known for such works as the novel
Mr. Midshipman Easy (1836) and a children's novel
titled The Children of the New Forest (1847). [back]
- 4. Mary (Mayme) Kennedy Foote
(1858–1933) was the daughter of Rev. William Sloane Kennedy and his wife
Sarah Elizabeth (Woodruff) Kennedy, and she was the younger sister of Whitman's
friend and defender William Sloane Kennedy (1850–1929). Mary Kennedy was
married to DeVillo C. Foote (1854–1927), a salesman who sold weather
strips. The couple lived in Ohio. [back]
- 5. Kennedy is referring to works related to
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), an American critic, poet, and editor of
The Atlantic who had died a month prior to this
letter. One of Whitman's famous poetic contemporaries, Lowell 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!" For further
information on Whitman's views of Lowell, see William A. Pannapacker, "Lowell, James Russell (1819–1891)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 6. Sylvester Baxter (1850–1927)
was on the staff of the Boston Herald. Apparently he met
Whitman for the first time when the poet delivered his Lincoln address in Boston
in April, 1881; see Rufus A. Coleman, "Whitman and Trowbridge," PMLA 63 (1948), 268. Baxter wrote many newspaper columns
in praise of Whitman's writings, and in 1886 attempted to obtain a pension for
the poet. For more, see Christopher O. Griffin, "Baxter, Sylvester [1850–1927]," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 7. See Whitman's August 13, 1891, letter to Sylvester Baxter, in
which he briefly eulogizes James Russell Lowell. [back]