Walt Whitman to Sylvester Baxter, 9 June 1885

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Sylvester Baxter, 9 June 1885
Date: June 9, 1885
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00541
Source: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 391–392. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schöberlein Kyle Barton
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Sylvester Baxter, 9 June 1885." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 14 January 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: nyp.00541.xml (TEI)

328 Mickle Street Camden New Jersey June 9 '85 My dear Baxter

I wonder if you could use this in the Outing? The price would be $121—I am ab't as usual of late years—I rec'd your kind note some months since—

Walt Whitman

Correspondent:
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).

Notes

1. On June 7 Whitman sent to Harper's Monthly "The Voice of the Rain," which was returned to him by Alden, the editor, on the following day (June 8, 1885). It appeared in Outing, "An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Recreation," in August. [back]