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  My dear Gilder

I wonder if you can help me in the matter of wh'​ the enclosed two pp. are a statement—Havn't​ Haven't​ you connected with your establishment some one learn'd in copyright law & its infractions, that could take the thing in hand? injunct Worthington or something?

—I have sent a duplicate of the two pages to John Burroughs—& asked him to call & see you—I am ab't​ the same as of late years but unable to travel & mainly helpless.

Walt Whitman

Nothing must be done involving heavy fees, as I couldn't pay them

  Nov:​ 26 1880

R Worthington 770 Broadway New York about a year ago bo't​ at auction the electrotype plates (456 pages) of the 1860–'61 edition of my book Leaves of Grass—plates originally made by a young firm Thayer & Eldridge under my supervision there and then in Boston, (in the spring of 1860, on an agreement running five years.) A small edition was printed and issued at the time, but in six months or thereabout Thayer & Eldridge failed, and these plates were stored away and nothing further done;—till about a year ago (latter part of 1879) they were put up in N Y​ city by Leavitt, auctioneer, & bought in by said Worthington. (Leavitt, before putting them up, wrote to me offering the plates for sale. I wrote back that said plates were worthless, being superseded by a larger & different edition—that I could not use them, the 1860 ones, myself, nor would I allow them to be used by any one else—I being the sole owner of the copyright.)

However it seems Leavitt did auction them & Worthington bo't​ them (I suppose for a mere song)—W. then wrote to me offering $250 if I would add something to the text & authenticate the plates, to be published in a book by him. I wrote back (I was in St Louis at the time, helpless, sick) thanking him for the offer, regretting he had purchased the plates, refusing the proposal, & forbidding any use of the plates. Then & since I thought the matter had dropt. But I have to add that about September 1880 (I was in London     Canada at the time) I wrote to Worthington, referring to his previous offer, then declined by me, and asking whether he still had the plates & was disposed to make the same offer; to which I rec'd​ no answer. I wrote a second time; and again no answer.

I had supposed the whole thing dropt, & nothing done, but within a week past, I learn that Worthington has been slyly printing and selling the Volume of Leaves of Grass from those plates (must have commenced early in 1880) and is now printing and selling it. On Nov.​ 22, 1880, I found the book, (printed from those plates,) at Porter & Coates' store, cor:​ 9th & Chestnut Sts. Philadelphia. P & C told me they procured it from Worthington, & had been so procuring it off & on, for nearly a year.

First I want Worthington effectually stopt from issuing the books. Second I want my royalty for all he has sold, (though I have no idea of ever getting a cent.) Third I want W. taken hold of, if possible, on criminal proceeding.

I am the sole owner of the copyright—& I think my copyright papers are all complete—I publish & sell the book myself—it is my sole means of living—what Worthington has done has already been a serious detriment to me.—Mr Eldridge, (of the Boston firm alluded to) is accessible in Washington D C—will corroborate first parts of the foregoing—(is my friend)

Walt Whitman 431 Stevens Street Camden New Jersey