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  Dear Mr. Whitman:

It is so many years since I saw you—you will not remember the child-friend and disciple of yours, I am afraid. She is no longer a child—the more's the pity!—but she claims the title of disciple and in that name asks a favor.—

It has seemed to us that it would be a good thing to bring out a "Walt Whitman Calendar"—of extracts from your Leaves of Grass—after the model (improved) of the Emerson and Shaksperean Calendars. They have a large sale among people who perhaps     never own a copy of the poems. It is a means of disseminating and popularizing where we cannot always reach in other ways.

Will you give consent to the Calendar? Will you let me do it as my Christmas contribution to your comfort. I want to share with your other friends the honor of aiding and have nothing else to give. This I do believe I can do both speedily and well and your friends think it will sell widely.

A great deal of reading is already done towards it. I await only your card—a bare "yes" and all the rest is done. Time is so brief before the mark must be completed,— can you send me that word at     once? A postal card will suffice. I shall count the days for it eagerly and anxiously.

My Uncle (W. D O'Connor) left us yesterday with my father, for Washington— very lame and feeble. Mr. Eldridge remains.

With great affection and esteem, Grace E. Channing.

P.S. Mama suggests that if you would telegraph your reply it would save a week of most precious time!

G.E.S.     Grace Ellery Channing