Walt Whitman's Long Island: A Research Guide

"Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American beat poet and essayist. This collection contains letters, photographs and other material produced by the Bolton Whitman Fellowship during the period 1891-1913. Whitman maintained an active correspondence with the group and his inner-circle continued this tradition long after the poet’s death. The correspondence is an essential resource for the reader-oriented study of English-language poetry in the 19th century..."

"Collection includes correspondence separated into two subseries: "Letters To or About Walt Whitman," and "Letters From or By Walt Whitman." Most of Whitman's letters in the collection were written between 1880 and 1891. Letters include those written to and from friends, family members, editors, publishers, and soldiers Whitman met in and around Washington, D. C. during the Civil War..."

Lawyer. Correspondence, manuscripts of poetry and prose, notes and notebooks, proofs and offprints, printed material, and other papers received by Harned as one of Walt Whitman's three literary executors. The collection contains material relating to many aspects of Whitman's career, especially the publication of and subsequent controversy surrounding "Leaves of Grass" and his commitment to the ideals embodied in the life and death of Abraham Lincoln.

The papers of poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection consist of approximately 28,000 items spanning from 1763 to 1985. The bulk of the items date from the 1840s through Whitman's death in 1892, and into the twentieth century. The collection of correspondence, literary manuscripts, books, proofs, and associated items represent periods of Whitman's life from his early time living in New York, middle-age in Washington, D.C., and the last phase of his life in Camden, New Jersey. The papers include primary documentation of Whitman's friends and family; his experience as a civil servant and hospital volunteer in Washington, D.C., during the American Civil War; his contributions as a lecturer and social commentator; and his decades-long career as a journalist, prose writer, literary and arts critic, and poet.

"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. ..."

"In this section, the Whitman Archive offers a growing amount of correspondence. We are gathering, transcribing, and encoding documents so as to compile the first complete record of Whitman's personal correspondence, both incoming and outgoing. In 2010, with generous support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) we made available Whitman's Civil War correspondence...."

"This small collection of papers (about 150 items; 1,200 images) of poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) spans the years 1837-1957 with the bulk concentrated in the period 1840-1891. Included are examples of the poet’s original correspondence and literary manuscripts, photocopies and transcripts of similar Whitman material, and printed matter and miscellaneous items relating to Whitman..."

"The Beinecke Library’s Walt Whitman Collection contains letters, manuscripts, photographs, art, and other material dating from 1842-1949, and features the Whitmania of Yale benefactors Louis Mayer Rabinowitz and Arian Van Sinderen. The Rabinowitz gift features letters to Whitman from Civil War soldiers and former patients, galley proofs for articles and poems, many inscribed and signed by Whitman, and holograph fragments to November Boughs. A group of papers relating to Whitman’s brother George includes journal entries and letters documenting Whitman’s efforts to find his brother during the war. Whitman’s journal entries provide a rough history of his brother’s movements from an undated memo from George to his mother, in which George reveals his captivity, to Whitman’s first journal entry on December 26, 1864 describing the family’s experience after receiving George’s army trunk.

The Van Sinderen gift includes correspondence, writings, photographs, art, and other material. There are letters from Whitman to naturalist John Burroughs, Julius Chambers, Moncure Conway, Boston editor Nathan Hale, William Sloane Kennedy, William Michael Rossetti, John Swinton, and his mother Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. There are letters to Whitman from family members, his biographer Richard Maurice Bucke, and journalists and writers, including Samuel Clemens, John Camden Hotten, William Douglas O’Connor, Allen Thorndike Rice, and Algernon Swinburne. Writings include articles and essays, autobiographical pieces, a diary fragment, lectures and speeches, notes and notebooks, outlines and proposals, and poetry. Writings are present in manuscript, corrected galley proofs, and printed versions..."