431 Stevens Street
Camden New Jersey
May 19 '82
Dear Sirs1
I suppose Benj: Ticknor has informed you that the Osgood & Co: plates of Leaves of Grass now in your charge have been transferred to
me, & are henceforth subject to my order.2
Will you please prepare for me for casting a new title page, the copy for which is
herewith enclosed—As it is a small job, could you make up (I should say in the
same long primer as book, but I leave it to Mr Clark's3
taste), & send the proof of it to me by next Monday night's mail—as I am
waiting for new titles for 225 copies I have in sheets, & have an order for4—Will return proof immediately with word how many I
want printed.
Walt Whitman
If convenient please place this matter in the hands of H H Clark to whom I hereby
send best remembrances & respects—
W W
Notes
- 1. Whitman noted in his
Commonplace Book this letter to Rand & Avery, the firm which had printed the
1860 and Osgood editions (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt
Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). On June 8
Whitman sent "corrections" to the firm and "ordered 1000 copies printed," but
the order was later "countermanded" (Whitman's Commonplace Book). Evidently Rand
& Avery refused to run off the edition because of fears of legal action. On
July 24 Whitman paid Rand & Avery $13.75, presumably for the corrections
(Whitman's Commonplace Book). [back]
- 2. Ticknor, for Osgood &
Co., on May 19 instructed Rand & Avery to hold the plates for Whitman
(Whitman's copy of the letter is in the Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.). [back]
- 3. The superintendent of the
Rand & Avery plant. [back]
- 4. On the same day Whitman
"sent order to Sanborn, Boston, to send the 225 sets sheets to James Arnold"
(Whitman's Commonplace Book). Arnold, who had his plant at 531 Chestnut Street
in Philadelphia, had bound the 1876 edition. [back]