Transcription errors corrected in Complete Prose and "Reminiscences of Walt Whitman"

In reading some of Whitman's comments regarding opera, I noticed two transcription errors in Complete Prose Works (pp. 294 and 294) and one in the John Townsend Trowbridge reminiscence in the interviews section. They are now corrected.

~ Brett

Image links in Yale manuscript catalog correted

Dr. Jay Grossman pointed out that a number of image links were broken in the catalog of Whitman manuscripts held at Yale University's Beinecke Library. The links in question were for items yal.00338, yal.00454, and yal.00455. The links have been fixed. We thank Prof. Grossman for pointing out the error.

- Kevin

Manuscript note update

I have updated the editorial note associated with the manuscript "Breathjuice" to reflect the manuscript's likely connection to the 1856 poem "Bunch Poem" (later titled "Spontaneous Me").

~ Nikki

Encoding of signature (in forme work) in LG 1856 corrected

I happened to notice that the signature "2*," which appears at the bottom of p. 33 in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass, had been encoded differently than all of the other signatures, causing it to be omitted from the individual poem display. I have regularized the encoding.

~ Brett

Correction to encyclopedia entry for Leaves of Grass 1891-1892

Two different people pointed out to Ed Folsom that the article by R. W. French about the 1891-92 edition of Leaves (https://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/current/encyclopedia/entry_27.html) incorrectly gave the number of new poems in the first annex as sixty-four (rather than sixty-five). I have corrected this.

~ Brett

Staff page updated

I have updated the Whitman Archive staff page to reflect the current staff for the 2019-2020 academic year.

- Kevin

Removed Brainard marginalia

I have removed John Brainard's Occasional Pieces of Poetry (1825) from the list of documents with Whitman's marginalia, based on a discovery by Lynne Farrington and Peter Stallybrass that the markings in this volume were almost certainly forgeries of Whitman's handwriting.

~ Nikki

Corrected transcription in Complete Prose Works

Ed noticed an error in our transcription of Whitman's Complete Prose Works. On page 137, we were missing an em-dash between the words "not" and "takes" in the past paragraph on that page. The error has been corrected.

- Kevin

Error corrected in Memoranda During the War

Ken noticed an error in our transcription of Memoranda During the War. On page 54, a sentence read, "What you saw is not the real monument." It should have read, "That you saw is not the real monument." The error has been corrected.

- Kevin

Error corrected in Complete Prose Works

A user, Dr. Richard A. Nanian, alerted us of an error in Whitman's Complete Prose Works. A the top of page 34, our transcription had read "day more, and so on for many days, the rate of 1000 a day. Quite often they arrive at" whereas the original text reads, "day more, and so on for many days. Quite often they arrive at the rate of 1000 a day." We have corrected the error, and thank Professor Nanian for alerting us to its presence.

- Kevin

Corrected typo in "Little Bells at Night"

Ed Folsom alerted me to the fact that our transcription of this poem printed in a periodical (https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/poems/per.00077) had "long-strech'd" for "long-stretch'd." I have made the correction.

~ Brett

Corrected date for an amanuensis letter

Jacqueline Budell noted that "Nelson Jabo to Adeline Jabo, 21 January 1865" (nar.03612) was misdated on the index page and in the title as being from June 1865. These errors are now corrected.

~ Brett

Corrected typo in WWWiC, Volume 7, entry for August 12, 1890

Ken noticed a typo in Volume 7 of With Walt Whitman in Camden. In the entry for August 12, 1890, the word "prairies" was misspelled as "praries." The error has been corrected.

- Kevin

Correction to typo in WWWiC entry for 11 Aug. 1889

Ed pointed out that "me" was mistranscribed as "my" in this entry. I have corrected the error.

~ Brett

Fixed typo in scribal document

Ken noticed a typo in one of the scribal documents. The final sentence in the Nov. 16, 1871, letter from A. T. Akerman to Major W. S. Brown had previously read: "My judgment concurs with yours as to the expediency of prompt arrests, but Mr. Corbin being on the spot can advice upon fuller information." "Advice" in this sentence should have been "advise." The error has been corrected.

- Kevin

Corrected name in title of scribal document

Ken pointed out that the name of the recipient of a scribal document was misspelled (Benjamin Helm Smith was rendered as "Benjamin HelmSmith" in the title of the document). This error has been corrected.

- Kevin

Corrected note in "Louisa Van Velsor Whitman to Walt Whitman, [13,20 or 27? March 1868]"

Ken pointed out that an annotation in our transcription of this letter was confusing, implying that James Harlan had once been the attorney general and could be reappointed to that position; Harlan had not previously been the attorney general, but the head of the Department of the Interior (when he had fired Whitman). This point, in note 13, has been clarified.

- Kevin

Correction to note in "Walt Whitman to John M. Binckley, 24 March 1868"

Ken noticed that the word "letter" was missing from the "Correspondent" note for this letter (loc.01577). It is now supplied.

~ Brett

Transcription error corrected in vol. 3 of With Walt Whitman in Camden

Ken noticed that on p. 469 "the Harlan business" had been mistranscribed as "the Harland business." I have made the correction.

~ Brett

"Letters Written for Soldiers" section published

We have created and published a new section of the Archive dedicated to letters that Whitman wrote on behalf of soldiers during the Civil War. Titled "Letters Written for Soldiers," this section provides transcriptions and images of all five such letters that are currently known, as well as some brief introductory text. It is linked from the "In Whitman's Hand" section of the Archive.

An accompanying announcement has also been added to the Archive's homepage.

- Kevin

Typo corrected in Sequel to Drum-Taps

James O'Neil pointed out a typo on the title page of Sequel to Drum-Taps (the second title page, that appears after the text of Drum-Taps proper). We transcribed the page's subtitle as "AND OTHER POEMS," when it should have been "AND OTHER PIECES." We have corrected the error.

- Kevin

Typo corrected in scribal document

Ken noticed that an "s" was missing in our transcription of nar.00419 ("John M. Binckley to T. A. Jenckes, 24 January 1868"). I have corrected "Of the third-class clerk, one is . . . " to "Of the third-class clerks, one is . . . ".

~ Brett

Typo corrected in 1860–1861 Leaves of Grass

Ken noticed that the second occurrence of "mediæval" was misspelled on p. 135 of the 1860–1861 edition of Leaves of Grass. I have corrected the error.

~ Brett

Date metadata corrected in letter of 29 October 1873

Ken noticed that the letter from Whitman to Charles W. Eldridge of 29 October 1873 was appearing out of chronological order on the index page. I have corrected the date value in the TEI header and reindexed the correspondence.  The letter now appears in its proper position in the chronological sort.

~ Brett

Footnote added to letter of 11 May 1863

Archive user Walter Stahr contacted us with information about his ancestor, Thomas Cotrel, who is mentioned in a letter from Whitman to Moses Lane dated 11 May 1863. I have added this information in a footnote.

~ Brett

New Aurora editorials published

We have published 19 additional newspaper editorials likely written by Whitman for the New York Aurora. To date, we have now published 76 Aurora editorials.

The new pieces published were: 
 
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00463.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00575.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00577.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00578.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00579.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00580.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00581.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00582.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00583.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00584.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00585.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00586.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00587.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00588.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00589.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00590.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00591.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00592.html
https://whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/journalism/tei/per.00593.html

- Kevin

Corrected typo in v. 3 of With Walt Whitman in Camden

I happened to notice, while reading the entry for Wednesday, November 14, 1888, that the word "the" was missing from our transcription of the sentence "This is the very centre, circumference, umbillicus, of my whole career." I have supplied the missing word (in both the whole-volume and dated-entry transcriptions).

~ Brett

Footnote added to anc.00175 (LG 1855 review)

User Kelly Scott Franklin pointed out a typo in this review, and upon investigation I discovered that the problem was in the original rather than in our transcription. After discussing the long-standing ambiguity in our presentation of <sic> (i.e., that users cannot be sure, in materials for which we present no page images, whether typos are in the original or in our transcription) Ken, Kevin and I decided we should include a footnote. This accords with the protocol that we follow for journalism transcriptions. I have now added the note for the review that (re-)raised this issue.

~ Brett

Corrected attribution of 1860 Leaves review

On a tip from Eric Conrad, Ken determined that we had no reason to believe that Whitman was the author of the unsigned review from 9 June 1860 in the New York Day Book. I have made the change to the transcription and the index.

~ Brett

Updated location of piece of correspondence

We have updated the location information for Whitman's July 20, 1883, letter to the Tertio-millenial Anniversary Association at Santa Fe. The location was previously listed as "unknown," but an Archive user informed us that the letter is held in the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, in San Marino, California. The file has been updated.

- Kevin

Date corrected in correspondence footnote

The footnote in a letter from William T. Otto to Whitman from May 11, 1865, incorrectly listed the date of another letter from Otto to Whitman as December 30, 1864; the actual date of the letter was January 12, 1865. The error has been corrected.

- Kevin

Typo corrected in 1891-1892 Leaves of Grass

I noticed that a space was missing between the words "the" and "sea" on p. 224 of our transcription of the deathbed edition of Leaves, so I have supplied it.

~ Brett

Two errors corrected in Traubel

I have corrected two errors (noted by Ed Folsom) in Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden. In the entry for January 5, 1889, the letter "y" was missing from the word "by" in the phrase "sit down by the fire." And in the entry for September 7, 1889, the word "contended" was misspelled in the final paragraph. Both errors have been corrected.

- Kevin

Fixed typo in piece of journalism

I have corrected a typo in a footnote for a piece of journalism. In the second footnote of Whitman's March 28, 1842, column in the New York Aurora, "What's the Row?" Martin Van Buren's name was misspelled "Marin." I have corrected the error.

- Kevin