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Walt Whitman to Whitelaw Reid, 14 April [1879]

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Whitelaw Reid, 14 April [1879]
  • Date: April 14, 1879
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: yal.00435
  • Source: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.

    Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
  • Contributors to digital file: Alicia Bones Grace Thomas Eder Jaramillo Kevin McMullen Kirsten Clawson Nicole Gray
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Whitelaw Reid, 14 April [1879]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 15 February 2026. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: yal.00435.xml (TEI)
 yal_af.00032.jpg Monday afternoon April 141879. 1309 Fifth av: near 86th st My dear Reid—

As you might possibly have room in the paper—& a full report might hit—I send you a complete copy of my lecture, to take the chances for to-morrow's paper—(As I calculate, it would make about three quarters of a column in your small type)1—

—My plan is to break the tedium of my half invalidism from time to time (& also collect a few shekels) by getting engagements as a lecturer & reader,—& this is an attempt to break the ice.

Walt Whitman  yal_af.00033.jpg

Notes

  • 1. The two-column report of Whitman's address—"A Poet on the Platform"—in the New York Tribune on April 15, began: "The poet Walt Whitman made his beginning as a lecturer last night at Steck Hall, in Fourteenth-st. His subject was the death of President Lincoln. He reads from notes, sitting in a chair, as he is still much disabled from paralysis. He desires engagements as a reader of his own poems and as a lecturer." [back]
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