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him better than I expected, looks coarse & strong & healthy, has a sort of husky voice like a sea captain

I have written a short sketch as the result of my sea-shore sojourn, for the Boston "Wheelman" a new

Eldridge thinks that my publishers are dealing honestly with me.

When one of my books was published they sold the first 6 months 733 copies.

Osgood would gladly undertake my books; so would Dodd Mead & Co of Fine day here to-day, but have had

'My foothold is tenon'd and mortis'd in granite; I laugh at what you call dissolution; And I know the

, my Captain,' 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed.'

What I experience or portray shall go from my composition without a shred of my composition.

You shall stand by my side and look in the mirror with me.'

place with my own day here.'

though momentary view of them, and then of their course on and on southeast, till gradually fading—(my

Moreover, just as his one successful lyrical poem, "My Captain," is enough to disprove all his theories

anecdote of Lady Dilke too pleased me) — Every thing goes on pretty much the same with us here in Camden—my

sister quite up to her standard of health—not plus , but not minus either—my brother a little on the

My books doing—L. of G. sales have been good— Specimen Days not so good yet, but I am satisfied.

I have been a reader of your writings for the last ten years or so and have in my humble way done my

(Indeed I have evinced the sincerity of my belief in you by going farther in its expression than most

Not in the slightest degree do I regret taking this step for I look upon you as one of my teachers and

as such owe you my debt of gratitude)" (The Library of Congress, Washington D.C.).

1888poetryhandwritten1 leaf; Draft of a poem later revised and published under the title Queries to My

My Seventieth Year

In his reply on April 29, Herbert noted that "John Burroughs was very violent against my intaglio."

Camden 1883 March 31 noon My dear friend I send you the second proofs—look over carefully for technicals

on L of G Leaves of Grass , & on certain primary & spinal literary laws—so assuring a pedestal for my

Despite Whitman's praise, O'Connor, on April 1, felt "dreadfully at the prospect your letter opens, of my

You left out my remarks on 'Children of Adam', I believe they were good but I acquiesce—your additions

credit than the Author—I am really surprised at the tact and judgement you have displayed in putting my

.00004xxx.00319My Canary Birdabout 1888poetryhandwritten1 leaf; This is a manuscript draft of the poem, My

My Canary Bird

29Queries to My 70th Year (1888).

The lines were revised and published as Queries to My Seventieth Year in 1888. [Here fretful]

You left out my remarks on 'Children of Adam', I believe they were good but I acquiesce—your additions

credit than the Author—I am really surprised at the tact and judgement you have displayed in putting my

Asylum for the Insane, London, 28th May 188 3 My dear Walt I have had the book a couple of days and have

credit than the Author —I am really surprised at the tact and judgement you have displayed in putting my

I suppose McKay will send me a statement (all in good time) showing my financial position as toward the

Bucke's WW done at last,—all bound & ready—seems to look very well—to-day I enter on my sixty-fifth year

In the margin of a copy, however, Whitman wrote: "my guess (at random) is that John Swinton is the writer

I have just mailed you my two Volumes, Leaves of Grass and Specimen Days —Won't you kindly send me a

He was living in what my memory pictures as almost a slum, & his bedroom was not exactly tidy.

Camden May 31 '83 The publisher having placed a few advance copies in paper of Dr Bucke's WW at my disposal

I mean exactly what I said in my last. W W Walt Whitman to William Sloane Kennedy, 31 May 1883

26: "I am glad to . . . go to battle in a good cause, but I am not exultant about it, I have made up my

on—not unfavorably at any rate—I am well as usual— W W I wish you would in your next tell me ab't about my

In 1888 Whitman observed: "Jeannie's death was the tragedy of their history—and a tragedy in my history

I spend my evenings altogether at the hospitals— my days often.

He is of my own party; and my politicshave been from my youth essentiallythe same ashis own.

Who 1,arns my Lesson complete.

My hands, my limbs grow nerveless.

The lecture closed with the recitation by the author of his grandly pathetic ' lament, O Captain, my

Have just been looking over the "Transfer" pamphlet you sent—pages 46, '7, to which you call'd my attention

I am curious to see the Carlyle-Emerson letters—(had not heard before about my being in them) —You hit

be call'd—it was the interference, doubtless hard lying , of others—there was & is a little knot of my

I was thinking of you when I wrote the first and third of my three reasons against transfer" (see Horace

I wish you would see that the printer puts all names of books into italics , as my copy indicated.

One thing I must beg, that you will restore to its place in the text so much of Emerson's letter as my

It is absolutely necessary to my point on Cook that the letter should stand right up there and face him

entirely to my taste.

It is probable that my state is reaction from the severe work of the winter at Washington.

Dresden '83 My dear Master I got your post card last Tuesday morning.

Yet in writing my essay, I had no thought of him, nor had mentioned him.

As to my translation of the I am now ready to cooperate with any competent German, i.e.

Perhaps my essay when published may lead to something. I got Dr. Bucke's book.

I will send him my essay when it appears. Nothing more to say now.

I could not have gone in any case, my wife was ill in bed & I had to go to Delaware Co County to examine

My own health is nothing to brag of, I thought the trouble was with my nervous system, but the doctor

finds it in my arterial; arteries hard & brittle, danger from apoplexy &c.

I have given up eating meat & have otherwise changed my habits—shall probably go out home in the spring

Dear Walt: I have sent you the MS of my letter to Bucke.

The collection of my anti-Comstock letters has been positively prevented up to date, by simple lack of

I was thinking of you when I wrote the first and third of my three reasons against transfer.

Do you see my dilemma?

I aimed, also, in my contribution to the volume, to add to its interest and attractiveness.

Or during my tedious sickness and first paralysis ( '73 1873 ) how you used to come to my solitary garret-room

and make up my bed, and enliven me, and chat for an hour or so—or perhaps go out and get the medicines

Pete, give my love to dear Mrs. and Mr.

for the copy German rendering " Cradle Endlessly Rocking " & for all the other German renderings of my

you have sent me, & which I carefully keep, & prize—Dr R M Bucke has just published a book about me & my

poems—& having two or three advance copies (in paper) at my disposal I should like to send you one.

I am getting better, and hope soon to be myself again—A bandaged hand prevents my writing, and everything

As soon as I get the free use of my hand, I will write to him, as you suggest.

Nothing will ever please me like knowing that my Bucke letter stands as it does with you.

"Well, then," rejoined the other, "I think your sister is the ugliest girl I ever saw in my life."

Camden Aug 29 Have finished my Germantown visit & am back here.

Ritter —have indeed not sent copies to any except my sisters and neices nieces . Mrs.

New York City, has translated many of my poems in German, & published them.

I hope, therefore, my paragraphing may be permitted by the benignant printer.

I was horrified to learn that my footnote about Lowell was set as per copy.

The note, I guess, will have to stand as it is, for I am at the disadvantage of having left my annotated

My name is Promptness. Good printer-man, thou, too, be not obdurate, but grant me a revise!

I am rummaging my memory for an epigraph for the appendix, as you requested.

London Ont Ontario Canada, Nov November 28– 83 1883 My Dear Old Friend: I arrived here safely Saturday

I am up in my little room writing this while my patients are sadly pacing up and down the hall.

Have 42 men in my charge. Will have to close for the present so good-bye.

If you preferred you could have your bed here in my shanty—a large comfortable room on the brink of the

hill, fifty yards from the house, where my books and papers are, and where I spend most of my time.

My Carlyle article goes into the August Century. I am adding a page about Mrs.

round—over the ferry & up Market street, Phila Philadelphia , & stop occasionally at 23 south 9th st. where my

Now that my two books, prose and the poems, are out, I hardly know what to strike for—what to look forward

republished in Scotland & L. of G. is being translated in Germany — Tuesday night 10½— I am finishing my

letter—Never mind, Harry, dear—we'll make it all right when we meet—I have just written to your mother—Well my

living near a railroad— —I am well as usual— WW London Ont Ontario Canada, Nov November 28– 83 1883 My

I am up in my little room writing this while my patients are sadly pacing up and down the hall.

Have 42 men in my charge. Will have to close for the present so good-bye.

My Dear Walt: Your card to hand last night, with its sad account of dear Mrs.

Very glad, my dear old Walt, to see your strong familiar handwriting again; it does one good, it's so

John Burroughs was very violent against my intaglio; on the other hand, Alma Tadema —our great painter

My portrait represents him standing firmly, in a scarlet hunting-coat well stained with many a wet chase

I have long meant to build up something of you from my studies, adding colour.

I also enclose a press copy of my reply, and of the note I subsequently addressed with the MS to the

Montgomery wrote me a very kind note, saying that the editor wouldn't print my article for "professional

I was quite ill and weighed down with lassitude when I wrote it,—spurred only by my indignation.

Upon its return from the , I had a vague wandering notion of sending it to the Critic , as my blue pencil

17unc.00012xxx.00486Then my mother hastening1883-1888prose1 leafhandwritten; This manuscript contains

Then my mother hastening

If anything happens to prevent my leaving on Monday, I will let you know of my detention.

Bucke writes me that you like my Introductory. Faithfully W. D. O'Connor. Walt Whitman. William D.

Philadelphia, 2 Mo. 23 188 3 Walt Whitman Camden NJ My dear friend I claim the privileges of the name

Robert Pearsall Smith Two hundred Shares of the Capital Stock of the Sierra Bella Mining Co standing in my

name on the books of the said Company, and do hereby constitute and appoint Robert Pearsall Smith my

Whitman This certificate of Sierra Grande Mining Stock is to be returned to Robert Pearsall Smith at my

want the to appear as it was in the pamphlet, a form which always pleased us both, and you will see by my

with a carefully transcribed printer's copy of the pamphlet, and it is evident that the galoot has had my

My Good Gray reads really well in the new version. I had no idea it was so good!!

If I get a revise, I will correct: if not, you please have an "s" put on to my "lightning"—it is more

My dear friend and master— I am at last able to send you the lecture, which I have now got published

I have appended to my lecture a transl. translation of the Song of the Answerer, & in getting this translation

astonished at the amount of discussion it gave rise to, between myself & a German friend who looked over my

I had hoped great things from Gladstone's government, but that accursed Egyptian war opened my eyes finally

And yet I did not always see my way to these views myself.

never been translated) and send you a version of some of his splendid sentences; and when I collect my

I am afraid, too, that the Doctor overstates my proficiency in Elizabethan letters.

As I read it, my main thought was whether it would do good or harm, and I am still in dubiety on this

Shouldn't wonder if the book, and especially my share in it, would make an enormous row!

The title page is very handsome, and the Lucretian motto delights my soul.

Asylum for the Insane, London, 20th March 188 3 My dear Walt I have this afternoon received, read, and

You left out my remarks on "Children of Adam", I believe they were good but I acquiesce—your additions

But still, for the Lord's sake, spare my ch iii pt ii as much as possible.

I was rather amused (when I told some of my friends at home that I had seen you), at the ideas they seemed

to have of my object in calling on you.

It might have been my friend as well as myself who called but I had the opportunity.

I cannot very well leave my ship just now so I post it to you, he would have liked to have sent a more

Vermont Saturday afternoon June 16 Are you well enough my dear brother for me to send you my love and

Asylum for the Insane, London, 9th May 188 3 My dear Walt I returned home last evening and found plate

I am up to my eyes in work R M Bucke Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 9 May 1883

, Dear Sir, I wrote to you a week since, as to call upon you and since I have received no I presume my

My former letter was, then, a formal request for permission to see you.

Your permission would be a favor and, if it must be so, your denial would put an end to my suspense.

Greenport Dec 23 Dear Brother Walter I received a letter from you last night and an order for my annual

thing about it in your letter I am not feeling well at all this winter not sick abed but a pain in my

expect pains and aches as we are growing old but I am thankful I am no worse can get around and do my

a heavy cold on the chilly Sound boat in returning from Providence, which increased seriously after my

return, and developed into a bad attack of erysipelas, with which my head and face were well covered

He was so pleased with the epigraph, and so particularly pleased, as it seemed, with my enthusiastic

for Comstock, and shows that he is on the descending plane, down which I hope, and indeed heard, that my

He took my dare beautifully meek, I must say.

I suppose look ab't about the same—(perhaps grayer & redder)—though young enough in spirit & now in my

My two books bring me in a moderate income —I am satisfied with very plain living—& bless the Lord I

am likely to have enough for that as long as I need— Tom, give my best regards to your wife, for all

Peking, February 3rd— 188: My dear Mr.

have read was a mere newspaper exaggeration, and in sending you this wish, I send the assurances of my

consideration is swallowed up in the consciousness that you like what I have written—that you feel that my

My principal corrections—the ones I feel specially desirous to have made are as follows: I.

Bucke sent me my foot-note, and I have made the change (Page 100.).

to think of anything—in fact, I have been in too much trouble to think effectually—that is to give my

cooking—Otherways I have been here in C. all the time, have done a little work writing, but nothing much,—My

little talk—did me good to meet them—I dont don't think Jersey has two nicer looking boys—I was on my

got there I found the elder A. was dead & buried —so I have just had to write the sad intelligence to my

I wish you would speak to M c Kay about the circulars he was to print for me in re my vol. "W. W."

We are all well here, I am up to my eyes in work, have to write my annual report in the next two weeks