
That birthday bit in Lippincott is a capital thing, and most
satisfactory for friends over sea who wanted
some direct words, & evidence as to health &c. Friend Traubel has done his
photographing well and deserves our thanks. Conway's is the only bit that reads just
a little stilted & as if written with one eye turned inwards & the other one half on you &
half on the public. Well, well! Now this is not very charitable, and after all it's a jolly, hearty,
manly crowd that we see through Traubel's pages, gathering round your revered form, dear Walt Whitman.
Last time I wrote I was going to the Vienna Postal Congress. Since
I came back I have
had Bucke staying with me & giving me all the last
news of you & renewing
old memories (grand times!); & while I was there at Vienna I met "an Americano [not] one of
the roughs," but one who knows you. This was William Potter
of Philadelphia, who was one of Wanamaker's Delegate's to the Congress—one
of the United States' Delegates, to speak strictly.
He is a real good fellow: he was the best friend made at the Congress this time.
The money I'm sending in this letter (about 15 dollars) is chiefly for "Good bye, my Fancy!" which
I am without, though I have seen Bucke's copy. I want a copy in cloth as issued, with your name
& mine written in it if the old indulgent mood holds, and two copies of the untrimmed sheets
not bound. Then I want, if it is
to be had, six copies of "A Backward Glance" as printed on thin paper to be
annexed to L. of G. (pocket book edition)—they need not be stitched or done up any way, but on one
I should like your name & mine on the title-leaf. There are several minor works, or rather separate
works, which I fancy you still have, & of which one copy each similarly inscribed would be very welcome:
These are "Passage to India," "Democratic Vistas,"
"After All &c.," & "As a Strong Bird."
Lastly, my youngest son, Maurice Buxton Forman, is likely to go out into this
world soon—most probably to Egypt: he is now nearly 20. When he goes I want him to have the big
book—Complete Poems and Prose; and if it were attached to him by your own hand in the same way the
effect on his mind would be good.
He is studiously disposed, and it is about time he began on the Leaves; indeed he has
begun. So I want to buy him his copy, for a part of his essential outfit, whether you write on it or not.
Now if it chances that you do all I am asking, and the money does not run to it,
as well might be, the mention of the figure minus will bring the rest by
first-post.

