WALT WHITMAN “AT HOME”
WHITMAN, WALT. (1819-1892) American poet, essayist, journalist, and humanist. A very-rare, Partly-Printed Invitational Card for his: “At Home on Thursday Evening, / April 15th, 1887 / Westminster Hotel, N.Y.” to which Whitman has boldly signed his name at the top center: “Walt Whitman”. One page, small octavo. [approximately 4 ¼ x 3 ¼ inches]. New York City, April 1887. Neatly inlaid into a larger leaf, else extremely fine condition.
This invitation was sent out for a reception following Whitman’s monumental lecture at Madison Square Garden which occurred the night before, where Whitman delivered his lecture on Abraham Lincoln. It was attended by many prominent figures including: James Russell Lowell, Mark Twain, William T. Sherman; John Hay [Lincoln’s biographer and private secretary]; the future Cuban revolutionary José Martí; and the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
At the end of the lecture, the poet Edmund Clarence Stedman’s granddaughter brought Whitman lilacs and he read “O Captain! My Captain!”. The reception at Whitman’s hotel suite in the Westminster after the lecture was attended by about two hundred people. Whitman earned $600 from the event, and later described the lecture and its aftermath as “the culminating hour” of his life. A remarkable keepsake and worthy of inclusion in the finest literary or Walt Whitman collection.
$3000.00