Charles W. Chesnutt to Horace Traubel, 2 June 1905
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CHAS. W. CHESNUTT
1005 WILLIAMSON BUILDING
CLEVELAND, O.
Cleveland, June 2, 1905.
Mr. Horace L. Traubel,
Camden, N. J.
My dear Mr. Traubel:-
Your kind note asking me for a word to read on the occasion of the Walt Whitman Fellowship Meeting on May 31st, came duly to hand.1 I did not reply promptly because I have been exceedingly busy for the past month, and had hoped to be present in New York at the date of the meeting, when I should have looked up the convention and said my word in person.2 This I was unfortunately not able to accomplish because of business reasons, and I was therefore not in the thing at all, except in spirit. I hope for better luck another time. What I look forward to with more pleasure than anything else, had I been able to be in New York, was the pleasure of meeting you, which I still hope to enjoy on some favorable occasion.
Yours very truly, Chas. W. Chesnutt.Correspondent: Horace Traubel (1858–1919) was an American poet, essayist, and editor of The Conservator, a journal designed to promote Walt Whitman's works and reputation. Traubel was also a dedicated Socialist and one of the founders of the socialist weekly newspaper The Worker. He is best known for being Walt Whitman's literary executor and author of a nine-volume biography of Whitman's final four years (1888–1892), entitled With Walt Whitman in Camden.
1. The Walt Whitman Fellowship International was formally organized by Horace Traubel and several of Whitman's close friends in 1894, two years after Whitman's death, in order to ensure that the poet's literary legacy would continue. From 1895–1900 the group alternated their meeting place between Philadelphia and Boston, MA. From 1901–1919, they met in New York, but other branches began to form in other cities across the United States. The organization ended after Traubel's death in 1919. [back]
2. In addition to running his stenography business, in early 1905, Chesnutt was writing The Colonel's Dream. In April, he was elected to membership of the Committee of Twelve for the Advancement of the Interests of the Negro Race, and he was scheduled to deliver a lecture in May for the Boston Historical and Literary Association, which became "Race Prejudice; Its Causes and Its Cure" in Alexander's Magazine. This event was rescheduled for June to accommodate his son Edwin's graduation from Harvard University. [back]
