"RECEIVED… $44.80 FOR ROYALTY DUE ON SALES OF MY BOOK": FINE ORIGINAL AUTOGRAPH POSTCARD BOLDLY WRITTEN AND SIGNED BY WALT WHITMAN TO HIS PUBLISHER

WHITMAN, Walt. Autograph postcard signed. Camden, 1890. Autograph postcard measures 3 by 5 inches. $5500.

Original autograph postcard from Whitman to his publisher in Philadelphia David McKay confirming receipt of royalties "on sales of my book."

The postcard, written entirely in Whitman's hand, is addressed to "David McKay publisher, 9th st: opp: PO Philadelphia" and reads: "Camden New Jersey. Oct: 9 1890. Received from David McKay Forty Four Dollars & Eighty Cents ($44.80) for royalty due on sales of my book. Walt Whitman." McKay was an ambitious young publisher when in 1881 the Boston District Attorney informed James R. Osgood, Whitman's Boston publisher, that they would be liable for prosecution for obscenity unless certain passages of Leaves of Grass were removed. Whitman refused, taking his book instead to McKay. "He was able to find a more or less permanent home with an enterprising young publisher in Philadelphia, David McKay" (Kaplan, 20).

Whitman's handwriting and signature bold and clear.