Camden N J
Dec: 19 '881
First thanks for the paper wh- comes regularly & is always interesting to
me—Second, I send you a Volume of my complete writings2
&c. as a sort of Christmas present for you. When you get it safely, kindly send
me word by postal card3—I am laid up
sick—have been seven months.
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Charles E. Shepard,
following in the footsteps of his father George H. Shepard, managed and edited
the Long Islander newspaper, which Whitman had founded in
1838. Hiram A Baylis became publisher after Charles' death in 1927 (Paul Bailey
ed., Long Island: A History of Two Great Counties Nassua and
Suffolk [New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., 1949],
347).
Notes
- 1. This letter is
addressed: Charles E. Shepard | editor Long Islander newspaper | Huntington,
Suffolk Co: New York. It is postmarked: Camden NJ Dec 19 88. [back]
- 2. Whitman wanted to publish a "big
book" that included all of his writings, and, with the help of Horace Traubel,
Whitman made the presswork and binding decisions for the volume. Frederick
Oldach bound Whitman's Complete Poems & Prose (1888),
which included a profile photo of the poet on the title page. The book was
published in December 1888. For more information on the book, see Ed Folsom, Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman: A Catalog and
Commentary (University of Iowa: Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, 2005). [back]
- 3. If Shepard wrote to
acknowledge the receipt of Whitman's package, the letter is now lost. See Daybooks and Notebooks, Volume 2, ed. William White (New
York: New York University Press, 1978), 479, where the poet lists Shepard as one
of only sixteen people to receive Complete Poems &
Prose in December 1888. [back]