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Creator
Burns, Robert, 1759-1796
Call number
Berg Coll MSS 188326
Physical description
0.19 linear feet (1 volume)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Walt Whitman's copy of Poems Songs and Letters, Being the Complete Works of Robert Burns..., Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library
Repository
Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
Access to materials
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Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was a 19th-century American poet, essayist, and journalist. His copy of Poems Songs and Letters, Being the Complete Works of Robert Burns... edited by Alexander Smith (London: Macmillan, 1879), contains annotations and material dating from 1879 to 1902, including Whitman's holograph annotations of the text; annotated newspaper clippings about Burns; a tear sheet copy of Whitman's "Robert Burns as Poet and Person" from the North American Review with Whitman's corrections; a silk ribbon; and a letter from John H. Johnston to Andrew Carnegie.

Biographical/historical information

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He grew up and spent much of his career in Brooklyn, New York. Whitman's famous poetry collection, Leaves of Grass (1855, 1891-1892), was continuously expanded, revised, and republished during his lifetime. The collection celebrated the body, soul, nature, and democracy.

During the Civil War, Whitman worked as a government clerk in Washington, D. C., and nursed wounded soldiers. Those experiences influenced his poetry collection, Drum-Taps (1865). Whitman's widely recognized poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" (1865) and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" (1865), addressed the death of President Lincoln.

Whitman published an essay about the Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns titled "A Modern Poet on the Scotch Bard" in the newspaper Our Land and Time in 1875. He revised and retitled the essay "Robert Burns as Poet and Person" and published it in the New York Critic in 1882. Whitman made some minor textual edits and published the essay with the same title in the North American Review in 1886.

Whitman died in Camden, New Jersey in 1892.

John H. Johnston (1837-1919) was an American jeweler based in New York City and a close friend of Walt Whitman. He created fundraising events for Whitman as he aged.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie donated money to Walt Whitman after he heard the poet lecture on President Lincoln. He also admired the poetry of Robert Burns.

Scope and arrangement

Walt Whitman's copy of Poems Songs and Letters, Being the Complete Works of Robert Burns... edited by Alexander Smith (London: Macmillan, 1879), contains annotations and additional material dating from 1879 to 1902, including: Whitman's textual annotations and inscriptions, his annotated newspaper clippings about Burns, a corrected tear sheet copy of Whitman's essay on Burns, a silk ribbon, and a letter from John H. Johnston to Andrew Carnegie.

The 1879 volume holds Whitman's printed address label pasted into the inside front cover of the book, as well as his signature, holograph textual annotations, and inscriptions. It also includes Whitman's pasted and pinned newspaper article clippings, dating from 1883 to 1890, about Burns. Some of the clippings are dated and labeled in Whitman's hand. There are three additional newspaper clippings, dated and labeled by Whitman, laid into the book.

Present is a laid-in tear sheet copy of "Robert Burns as Poet and Person" from the November 1886 issue of the North American Review. The tear sheet bears Whitman's holograph corrections and additions.

The book includes a laid-in yellow silk commemorative ribbon from the Tam O'Shanter Club of Philadelphia, 1888, with a portrait of Burns.

The volume also features a laid-in letter from John H. Johnston to Andrew Carnegie, dated 1902. In the letter, Johnston presents the volume to Carnegie for his library at Skibo Castle in Scotland.

Administrative information

Custodial history

The volume, originally held by Walt Whitman, was given by him to John H. Johnston in 1892, by descent. Johnston gave the book to Andrew Carnegie in 1902. The volume, then, passed down by direct descent to Linda Mills, Carnegie's great-granddaughter.

Source of acquisition

Gift of Susan Jaffe Tane, 2022.

Processing information

Processed by Amy Lau in 2025.

Using the collection

Location

Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Third Floor, Room 320