LITERATURE 32 “I Am Pretty Strong Yet, & Go Out—But Head, Stomach & Liver, All In A Bad Way, & Seems As If Nothing Could Bring Them Round”: Walt Whitman Autograph Letter To John Burroughs Fine autograph letter signed from Walt Whitman to naturalist John Burroughs, his close friend and protégé. This letter is printed in The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman, Miller, Volume 2, pp. 331-2. The young John Burroughs first met Whitman in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War and quickly became close to the poet, initially considering him something of a guru who could do no wrong; Burroughs’ first book, in 1871, was the adoring Notes on Walt Whitman as Poet and Person, the drafts of which Whitman read and commented on at every stage. In later years, Burroughs would build a cabin in the woods in West Park, New York, not far from Poughkeepsie, and took to referring to the land around it as “Whitman Land”: “It was in these woods that he’d walked with Walt during the poet’s frequent visits to West Park in the late 1870s,” and Burroughs was in the habit of speaking “to his guests as much about Whitman as he did about birds and wildflowers… Burroughs would stand on the steps of the cabin, a worn copy of Leaves of Grass in his hands, and recite ‘Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking’” (Renehan). Burroughs was also a frequent visitor at Whitman’s house in Camden, and they remained close until the end of Whitman’s life. Fine condition. 33WHITMAN, Walt. Autograph letter signed “Walt.” Camden, 1875. Octavo, two pages on single sheet, to John Burroughs, with original envelope in Whitman’s hand. $15,000 “Whitman, the one man breaking a way ahead. Whitman, the one pioneer… Ahead of all poets, pioneering into the wilderness of unopened life, Whitman. Beyond him, none.” – D.H. Lawrence
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