[Had been simmering] | Whitman Archive

Whitman Archive Title: [Had been simmering]
Whitman Archive ID: pri.00005
Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in the Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library
Date: 1889–1891
Genre: prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: Draft of "Some Personal and Old-Age Jottings," first published in the March 1891 issue of Lippincott's Magazine under the title, "Some Personal and Old-Age Memoranda." This prose piece remained largely unchanged between its first printing in Lippincott's and its appearance in Complete Prose (1892). However, the version published in Lippincott's includes a transcription of Ralph Waldo Emerson's 21 July 1855 letter in praise of Leaves of Grass , along with a short commentary on Emerson's relationship to Whitman—both of which Whitman did not include in Complete Prose . On the verso of this manuscript is a letter addressed to Whitman, dated 19 June 1889. Based on the date of this incoming letter and the date "Some Personal and Old-Age Jottings" was first published, this manuscript must have been composed between 1889–1891.