Walt Whitman papers

Description data
Resources (attachments and links)
Repository assets
Living At
Child components

id: 6341
origination: Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892
date statement: 1854-1892
key date: 1859
identifier (local_mss): 19100
org unit: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
call number: (missing)
b-number: b15520479
total components: 672
total series: 6
max depth: 3
boost queries: (none)
component layout: Berg Layout
Extended MARC Fields: false
Extended Navigation: false
created: 2013-04-01 15:05:34 UTC
updated: 2026-08-16 02:08:35 UTC
status note: (missing)
Display Aeon link: true

Description data TOP

unitdate: {"value"=>"1854-1892", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1854/1892"}
date_inclusive_start: 1854
date_inclusive_end: 1892
keydate: 1854
unittitle: {"value"=>"Walt Whitman papers"}
physdesc: {"format"=>"simple", "value"=>"Nearly 35 Whitman manuscripts, or manuscript fragments, and 13 manuscripts relating to Whitman. In addition, there are approximately 200 ALS and ANS; 150 postal cards; 70 letters written to Whitman; and 30 letters regarding him."}
repository: {"value"=>"The New York Public Library The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature"}
langmaterial: {"value"=>"English"}
prefercite: {"value"=>"[Identification of item], Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library Requests for reproduction and/or permission to quote must be made in writing to the Curator and be accompanied by Estate permission."}
origination: {"value"=>"Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892", "type"=>"persname"}
bioghist: {"value"=>"Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819 on Long Island, one of seven children, and died March 26, 1892 in Camden, New Jersey. His family moved to Brooklyn when he was four years old. When he was thirteen he began work at the liberal Long Island Patriot, the beginning of his long involvement with journalism that included founding and running his own paper. Later in life, he worked as a teacher, a printer, a government clerk, and as a volunteer nurse to sick and wounded Civil War soldiers. <ul class=\"chronlist\"> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1842 Published a commissioned temperance novel in the November 23 supplement to the New World, entitled Franklin Evans; or the Inebriate . NYPL is one of only four institutions known to have the supplement.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1855 First edition of Leaves of Grass published to mixed reviews.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1855 Father died. Whitman assumed responsibility for his family.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1856 Second edition of Leaves of Grass brought out.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1860 Third edition of Leaves of Grass was published.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1862-1864 Whitman traveled to Fredericksburg, Virginia, in search of his brother George who had been listed among the soldiers wounded there. During the five days of his successful search for his brother, he became so overwhelmed by the suffering he saw that he remained, visiting and caring for sick and wounded soldiers as an unofficial nurse in Washington, D.C. and on the front. Supporting himself with a job at the Army Paymaster's Office, Whitman nursed wounded soldiers after work. In addition to volunteering his time, he collected money to augment his personal contributions for the purchase of fruit, biscuits, tobacco, milk, paper and stamps for the soldiers. Finally in 1865, he was forced to give up nursing because of his own ill health.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1865 Early in the year, Whitman's friend William O'Connor helped him obtain a position at the Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior. When, on June 30, 1865, the Secretary of the Interior James Harlan discovered a heavily revised edition of Leaves of Grass in his desk, he fired Whitman. (This copy, known as the \"Blue Book\" because of the color of its cover, can be found in the Oscar Lion Collection, Manuscripts Division, The New York Public Library.) A former Methodist minister, Harlan found a number of passages indecent and felt they advocated free love. William O'Connor came to Whitman's defense and managed to have him transferred to the Attorney General's office. O'Connor then wrote The Good Gray Poet, a pamphlet that defended Whitman against Harlan's accusations of indecency. He wished to speed Whitman's acceptance by the general public, which in many ways he did. The sobriquet “Good Gray Poet” stuck.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1865 Drum-Taps was published in the summer.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1865 In October Drum-Taps was republished as Sequel to Drum-Taps, bound with an additional twenty-four pages which included poems in memory of Abraham Lincoln who had been assassinated on April 14, 1865.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1867 Whitman published Democracy and a fourth edition of Leaves of Grass .</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1868 English edition of Leaves of Grass is published, edited by William Rossetti and entitled Poems of Walt Whitman . It received warm reviews, including Algernon Charles Swinburne's praise which likened Whitman to William Blake. Alfred, Lord Tennyson began to correspond with him, and Anne Gilchrist, the widow of the Blake biographer Alexander Gilchrist, proposed marriage.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1871 Fifth edition of Leaves of Grass published. Democratic Vistas and Passage to India, two new works, also published.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1873 Whitman suffered a serious stroke that resulted in lameness and general weakness. Only a few months earlier his mother had died, an experience he described as the \"great dark cloud of my life.\" Unable to work after the stroke, he went to Camden, N.J., to live with his brother and sister-in-law while he recovered (a process which took years), moving into the room in which his mother had died. Magnifying the period's bleakness for him was a dispute with William O'Connor that caused their estrangement.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1875 Now able to move around more easily, he spent long periods visiting nearby friends.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1875 On November 17, Whitman attended the reburial of Edgar Allan Poe and the dedication of a Poe monument in Baltimore. He was the only literary figure to attend.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1876 Democratic Vistas was reissued with additional poems under the title Two Rivulets .</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1879 Whitman's health improved enough to allow him to lecture and travel more broadly.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1881 Sixth edition of Leaves of Grass published in November in Boston, MA.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1882 Leaves of Grass is banned in April. When Whitman refused to make required changes, Osgood & Company halted publication. By June, Whitman had entered into an agreement with another company, Rees Welsh & Company in Philadelphia, and the book was released in 1882. Because of the scandal, the reissue sold well.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1882 Rees Welsh also published Specimen Days and Collect .</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1883 Dr. Bucke, a Canadian physician and alienist, as well as a friend of Whitman's, published the first biography of Whitman. (Whitman's in-depth revision of Bucke's Analysis of Poems is now in the Berg Collection.)</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1884 Whitman bought his own house at 328 Mickle Street in Camden, N.J.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1886 He began work on November Boughs, another work of prose and poetry, and continued to write short pieces for magazines and newspapers to supplement his income.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1888 Suffered another stroke in June, this one severe. Because of paralysis he now required a male nurse and a wheelchair for mobility. With Horace Traubel's assistance, however, he was able to complete and publish November Boughs as well as the Complete Poetry & Prose of Walt Whitman, 1855-1888 .</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1889 A large celebration was given in honor of the poet's seventieth birthday. Whitman worked hard throughout his life to attain the literary attention he felt he deserved. By the end of his life he was respected in both the United States and England and his work had been translated into a number of languages. Visitors to his house at Mickle Street included Oscar Wilde, Edmond Gosse, Horace Howard Furness and Joseph Penell. Financial support in his later years came from a varied group that included Edwin Booth, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain, Henry James and Robert Louis Stevenson.</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1891 Completed and published Good-Bye My Fancy and the final version of Leaves of Grass .</li> <li class=\"chronitem\"> 1892 Walt Whitman died on March 26.</li></ul>"}
scopecontent: {"value"=>"The Berg Collection's letters and manuscripts by Walt Whitman cover the years 1859 to 1891 with a small amount of material as yet undated. Strengths of the collection include nearly 30 poems or poem fragments and Whitman's autograph revision of the Analysis of Poems by Dr. R. Bucke. This essay was written for Bucke's authorized biography (Walt Whitman, 1883) and Whitman's extensive revisions were incorporated before publication. The correspondence includes two longer runs, one to William O' Connor and the other to his wife Ellen O'Connor. The O'Connors were active in a number of social causes, as well as devoted advocates of Whitman and his writing. William O'Connor, author of The Good Gray Poet (1866), was one of Whitman's closest friends until an argument in 1873 caused a break in their friendship. Others who figure prominently in the Berg Collection's Whitman materials include John Burroughs (1837-1921), nature writer, literary critic, and author of Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person (1867); Peter Doyle and Harry Stafford, young friends of Whitman's; and Richard Maurice Bucke (1837-1902), Whitman's authorized biographer, friend and literary executor. In addition to writing Walt Whitman (1883) and Walt Whitman, Man and Poet (1897), Bucke co-edited with Horace Traubel and Thomas Harned The Complete Writings (1902)."}

{"value"=>"The Walt Whitman papers are arranged in six series:\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/19100#c766865'>Series I. Manuscripts</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/19100#c766866'>Series II. Manuscripts relating to Whitman</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/19100#c766868'>Series III. Outgoing Correspondence</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/19100#c766869'>Series IV. Incoming Correspondence</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/19100#c766870'>Series V. Correspondence relating to Whitman</a></div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/19100#c766871'>Series VI. Portraits and Pictorial Works</a></div>\n</li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
arrangement: {"value"=>"<ul class=\"list\"> <li>Series I, Manuscripts, Arranged Alphabetically</li> <li>Series II, Manuscripts relating to Whitman, Arranged Alphabetically</li> <li>Series III, Outgoing correspondence, Arranged Alphabetically by Recipient</li> <li>Series IV Incoming correspondence, Arranged Alphabetically by author</li> <li>Series V, Correspondence relating to Whitman, Arranged Alphabetically</li> <li>Series VI, Portraits</li></ul>", "supress_display"=>true}
acqinfo: {"value"=>"Most of the Whitman material in the Berg was acquired by W. T. H. Howe of Cincinnati, the president of the American Book Company, who purchased it from the Harvard professor and Atlantic Monthly editor Bliss Perry (1860-1954). Perry also authored the first scholarly biography of Whitman. He undertook the project at the request of the Houghton Miflin publishing firm, after John Burroughs (1837-1921), the American naturalist and friend of Whitman, withdrew from his contract. Burroughs then gave Perry much of the research material he had collected. Presumably it was this material that Howe acquired. The Howe collection was purchased by Albert A. Berg following Howe's death in 1940 and was donated to the Berg Collection in the same year. Other Whitman items in the Berg come from the donated collections of the Berg brothers and the partly purchased, partly donated, collection of Owen D. Young (1941), Chairman of the Board of the General Electric Company.."}
altformavail: {"value"=>"<div class=\"head\">Electronic Access to Individual Items</div> A selection of Berg manuscript items is available through Major Authors Online: Walt Whitman, an electronic resource available in Room 316 of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library (Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street). Items from the Berg Collection are listed below. <ul class=\"list\"> <li> Whitman, Walt. As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free.</li> <li> Whitman, Walt. The Dead Emperor.</li> <li> Whitman, Walt. A Death-Sonnet for Custer.</li> <li> Whitman, Walt. Go, said his Soul to a Poet.</li> <li> Whitman, Walt. I Saw in Louisiana a Live Oak Growing.</li> <li> Whitman, Walt. Song of the Universal.</li> <li> Whitman, Walt. To Those Who've Fail'd.</li> <li> Whitman, Walt. Warble for Lilac-Time.</li> <li> Whitman, Walt. Whitman's Advertisement Regarding A Child's Reminiscence.</li></ul>"}
relatedmaterial: {"value"=>"<div class=\"head\">Other Sources</div> The Oscar Lion Collection in The New York Public Library's Rare Book Division has a significant collection of Walt Whitman manuscripts, books, pamphlets and portraits. Other libraries that house Whitman material include the Annenberg Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia's Alderman Library. The largest collection, including materials assembled by Charles E. Feinberg, is at the Library of Congress."}
unitid: {"value"=>"19100", "type"=>"local_mss"}
bibliography: {"value"=>"Listed in: Dictionary Catalog of the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1969-1983, 5 vols. plus 2 supplements. See Vol 4 pp 366-378 and the 2nd supplement p 513"}
abstract: {"value"=>"This is a synthetic collection covering the years 1854 to 1892 with some material still undated. Strengths of the collection include nearly 30 poems or poem fragments and Whitman's autograph revision of the \"Analysis of Poems\" by Dr. R. Bucke. This essay was written for Bucke's authorized biography (Walt Whitman, 1883) and Whitman's extensive revisions were incorporated before publication. The correspondence includes two longer runs, one to William O' Connor and the other to his wife Ellen O'Connor. The O'Connors were active in a number of social causes, as well as devoted advocates of Whitman and his writing. William O'Connor, author of The Good Gray Poet (1866), was one of Whitman's closest friends until an argument in 1873 caused a break in their friendship. Others who figure prominently in the Berg Collection's Whitman materials include John Burroughs (1837-1921), nature writer, literary critic, and author of Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person (1867); Peter Doyle and Harry Stafford, young friends of Whitman's; and Richard Maurice Bucke (1837-1902), Whitman's authorized biographer, friend and literary executor. In addition to writing Walt Whitman (1883) and Walt Whitman, Man and Poet (1897), Bucke co-edited with Horace Traubel and Thomas Harned The Complete Writings (1902)."}
sponsor: {"value"=>"Digitization was made possible by a lead gift from The Polonsky Foundation."}
date_start: 1854
date_end: 1892

Update Collection TOP

Update from EAD XML File

Resources TOP

PDF finding aid

No PDF finding aid attached.

File attachments

Title	Filename	Document type	Description	Index only

Walt Whitman papers

Description data TOP

Update Collection TOP

Update from EAD XML File

Resources TOP

PDF finding aid

File attachments

Links to external resources

Repository Assets

Living at NYPL Archives

Export Collection to ArchivesSpace

Child components TOP