Tarrytown Sunnyside Press

On May 9, 1880, Whitman wrote his friend John Burroughs, mentioning his new poem: "I suppose you saw my Riddle Song in the first number of Sunnyside Press—if not, I can send you the ‘Progress’ with it in it." Founded in 1880, the Sunnyside Press was a weekly newspaper, published in Tarrytown, New York until 1883 when it merged with the Record of the Times to form the Tarrytown Press-Record. Little is known about the circumstances of the publication of "A Riddle Song" or Whitman’s connection with the newspaper. The first issues of the Tarrytown Sunnyside Press are extremely rare, and the Walt Whitman Archive currently has no transcription or page images for the poem that appeared in this periodical.

Poems

"A Riddle Song." Tarrytown Sunnyside Press 3 April 1880. Reprinted in Forney’s Progress (Philadelphia) 2 (17 April 1880): 508; Leaves of Grass (1881–1882).

Bibliography

Blodgett, Harold W., and Sculley Bradley, eds. Leaves of Grass: Comprehensive Reader's Edition. New York: New York University Press, 1965.

Myerson, Joel. Walt Whitman: A Descriptive Bibliography. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993.

Whitman, Walt. The Correspondence. Ed. Edwin Haviland Miller. Vol. 3. The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman. New York: New York University Press, 1961. 178-179.