
Camden N J April 28 '82 Dear friend
Just returned from a fortnight down in the Jersey woods—not feeling well this month, (a bad cold, neuralgia, other head trouble, bowel trouble &c—yet nothing serious—will blow over in a few days) went down for a change, had bad weather & nothing propitious—but I have just come back & am already better—shall get along
—So Emerson is dead—the leading man in all
Israel—If I feel able I shall go to his funeral—improbable
though—A new deal in the fortunes of Leaves of
Grass—the District Attorney at Boston has threatened Osgood with
indictment "under the statutes against obscene literature," specifies a long list of
pieces, lines &c.—Osgood is frightened asks me
to change & expurgate—I
refuse peremptorily—he throws up the book & will not
publish it any more—wants me to take the plates, wh: I shall try to
do & publish it as before—(in some respects shall like it just as
well)—Can you help me? Can you loan me
$100?—
—The next N A Review (June number) will have a piece A Memorandum at a Venture signed by my name in which I ventilate my theory of sexual matters treatment & allusion in Children of Adam—I shall have some slips & will send you some to England—
—Am writing this in great haste angry with myself for not having responded before to your good letter of April 10—Love to 'Sula & the kid—
Walt Whitman