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Dr. Sanger's Book

About This Item

  • Title: Dr. Sanger's Book
  • Date: 11 December 1858
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.00857
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 11 December 1858: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Kaylen Michaelis Samantha Gilmore Brandi Faulkner Stefan Schöberlein Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Dr. Sanger's Book." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.00857.xml (TEI)
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DR. SANGER'S BOOK.—

Mayor Powell1 informs us that he received no application from Dr. Sanger,2 the author of a book on Prostitution, for statistics of the vice in relation to Brooklyn. Had any communication of the kind been forwarded to him, Mr. Powell says he certainly should have replied to it, for he makes it a point to answer all pertinent letters addressed to him in his official capacity. We make this correction with the more pleasure, because our public men are too apt to disregard the observance of the proper official courtesy in this behoof. We have heard it said that the government functionaries of Great Britain, of whatever degree, make it an invariable rule to reply to all correspondents no matter how humble their interlocutors may be, and if Mayor Powell has adopted the same course he is to be respected for it.

Notes:

1. Samuel S. Powell (1815–1879) served as mayor of Brooklyn from 1857 to 1861, and then again from 1872 to 1873. In 1863, he was nominated to become water commissioner by a previous mayor of Brooklyn, Colonel Alfred M. Wood, but was denied confirmation by the Board of Aldermen. Thomas Jefferson Whitman mentioned Powell's nomination in a December 1863 letter to Walt. [back]

2. William W. Sanger (1819–1872) was a New York physician and practitioner of medicine, becoming the first Resident Physician at Blackwell’s Island. He also wrote the History of Prostitution(Boston: Harper's, 1858), which appeared serialized in the New York Atlas alongside Whitman's "Manly Health and Training." See also Whitman's editorial on Sanger's History written for the Brooklyn Daily Times, December 9, 1858. [back]

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