Beschreibung:

WHITMAN, WALT]. O'CONNOR, William Douglas A collection of 17 autograph letters and 3 autograph cards signed ("W.D. O'Connor") all TO JOHN BURROUGHS, Washington D.C. and Providence, R.I., 4 May 1876 to 4 December 1884. Together 156 pp., 8vo and oblong 12mo, with 13 original addressed envelopes. [ With: ] One autograph letter signed to Dr. R.M. Bucke, Washington, 2 August 1885. 4 pp., 8vo; and one autograph letter signed from Harry [Buxton] Forman to John Burroughs, New York, 16 September 1884. 1 page, 8vo, integral blank; most letters with typed transcripts, all enclosed in brown quarter morocco protective case. AN IMPORTANT CORRESPONDENCE: DEFENDING LEAVES OF GRASS AGAINST CENSORSHIP A rich literary correspondence in which O'Connor, an early friend and supporter of Whitman (but estranged from the poet since an incident in 1872) writes at length of mutual literary interests, including the expurgation and bowdlerization of Leaves of Grass, Whitman's troubled relations with O'Conner, attacks of Whitman by Bayard Taylor etc. 4 May 1876: O'Connor comments on Burroughs' response in the Tribune to criticisms of the "black welkin the judicious Bayard [Taylor]" and on Taylor's editorials: "I suppose you remember his treatment of Walt..." He shrugs off Burroughs's attempt to reconcile the two: "It is better that Walt and I should not meet...It is an awkward subject to write about, and I hope you will keep what I have said to yourself. The trouble between us I have never circulated, but it has been used against me..." 15 May 1876: Writing on an editorial controversy in the Tribune and Bayard Taylor's relplies: "[Edmund Charles] Stedman is very friendly to Walt, and I think you'd better take him out of your article in the proofs"; also criticizing Taylor. 3 May 1882: O'Connor wishes Burroughs "a good time abroad...I will see that you are advised of the progress of the war I mean to make to the death upon this scoundrel lawyer...this supression of a grand and honest book by an impoverished and illegal censorship, the tool of private spite, and bigotry, and club-house lust anxious about its fig-leaves" and dismissing threats of prosecution by the D.A., who "exceeded his authority...as I hope to make plain even to his comprehension...Now is the time Bucke's book ought to be out;" encouraging Burroughs to publish Leaves of Grass in England, and referring to the death of Emerson: "It lends a pang to this outrage to remember Emerson's estimate of the book--his unretracted estimate." 4 June 1882: To Burroughs in England, O'Connor recounts the continued battle over the supression of the book: "I want to smoke out those ...rotten hypocrites who hunt 'Leaves of Grass' because of the note on 'Fanny Hill'" and attacks the Rev. John W. Chadwick, "this clerical black-guard." 12 July 1882: "I enclose Chadwick's letter and my answer, which has had the desired effect of shutting Chadwick up for good." O'Connor refers to Emerson and his altered opinion of Leaves of Grass, as well as the continuing controversy in Philadelphia and Boston over Whitman's poem "To a Common Prostitute": "I went to see Bob Ingersoll and told him the story...we arranged to go together to the Postmaster General to reverse the decision...and you can fancy the delightful little Waterloos the transaction has been for the foe." He comments on Rossetti's selection from Leaves of Grass : I would have daubed him with Rabelais and Dante. He, the translator of The Inferno, to prate of Walt's book as 'nasty,' in the name of art and taste! How would Signor Alighieri stand his dainty tests?...As for Swineburne, he hasn't it in his moral make-up to understand Leaves of Glass ...He is in no more rapport with [Victor] Hugo, despite his pyrotechnics of eulogy, than he is with Walt." The latter correspondence deals with the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy, with occasional reference to Walt Whitman and other writers. In his letter of 17 October 1884 he comments on Grover Cleveland: "I thoroughly