Walt Whitman Quarterly Review

Walt Whitman: A Current Bibliography, Spring 2001

Folsom, Ed

Announcements, Spring 2001

Prints a previously unpublished letter from Whitman to Sholes and reprints an 1880 article by Sholes (published on Decoration Day in 1880) about Whitman

Genoways, Ted

NOTES 
"ASHES OF SOLDIERS": WALT WHITMAN AND C. H. SHOLES, A 
NEW LETTER AND A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE 
On February 20, 1880, Walt Whitman sent the circular for the 1876 editions 
of Leaves o/Grass and Two Rivulets to a short-hand reporter in Iowa named C. 
H. Sholes- presumably at his request (DBN 173). He received in return an 
admiring letter from Sholes on March 12, along ·,with an order for both vol-
umes. On a slip of paper later pasted into his daybooks, Whitman noted that 
Sholes was an "admirer of L of G-bo't the book (ardent letter from him 
March '80)" (DBN, 131). The following is Whitman's previously unpublished 
response to Sholes, now in the Kendall Reed Collection: 
TO C. H. SHOLES 
ADDRESS: C H Sholes / Glenwood 
/ Mills Co: Iowa / POSTMARK: 
Philadelphia PA / Mar / 12/5 PM 
3.12[.1880] 
Camden New Jersey 
March 12 pm-Yours duly rec'd-I send you by mail to-day, to same 
address as this card, my Two Vols, Leaves of Grass and Two Rivulets-Please send 
me a card informing me if they reach you safely-
Walt Whitman 
Sholes received the package (an 1876 edition of Two Rivulets was recently 
offered for sale by D & D Galleries of Somerville, New Jersey, with the in-
scription: "C. H. Sholes / from the author"), but, if he sent a postcard con-
firming the shipment, Whitman did not note it in the daybooks. However, 
Sholes soon wrote an article revealing the extent of his admiration for Whitman. 
On Decoration Day, May 30, 1880, he published in the Iowa State Register the 
following article, reprinted here for the first time: 
ASHES OF SOLDIERS. 
On this occasion of decorating the graves of the brave men who valued their coun-
try more than their own lives, when little children shall strew them with the flowers of 
May, and strong men shall speak eloquent words and shed the more eloquent tear, 
nothing could be more appropriate than the following beautiful poem, written by one 
who well knew the hardships of the soldier's life. The author, Walt Whitman, who 
attains his sixty-first birthday to-morrow, the 31st of May, gave three years of arduous 
labor to nursing the sick and wounded on the field and in the hospitals. There are many 
186 
soldiers in the North who remember his kind face and sympathizing words as he walked 
through the wards carrying baskets of food and fruit to some, giving papers, books and 
money to others, writing letters home to parents, wives and lovers, washing and dress-
ing wounds, reading to dying men from worn and blood-stained bibles, and bending to 
kiss some pale, pain-distorted face. Many a mother cherishes a tenderly-written letter 
signed "W. W." as the last precious relic of her soldier-boy who sleeps upon a southern 
battle-field. 
Walt Whitman's memoranda during the war, Drum-Taps, and Lincoln's Burial 
Hymn, constitute the most touching and thrilling memorials of the rebellion that we 
possess; indeed they are the only adequate embodiment of the heroic spirit of the time. 
His intense devotion to the cause and the exposure resulting therefrom, induced an 
attack of paralysis from which the author has not fully recovered. While the nation 
mourns for its illustrious heroes, and joins to-day in rendering unto them the honor 
which is their due, let one garland be woven in memory of the soldiers' noblest friend 
and poet-Walt Whitman. 
Following is the poem, and although not written with special reference to this oc-
casion, is most appropriately called "Ashes of Soldiers": [the text of the 1876 version of 
"Ashes of Soldiers" follows]. 
Sholes sent Whitman copies of the article, which Whitman acknowledged 
on June 9 from Maurice Bucke's home in London, Ontario: "I have rec'd the 
two Iowa papers, with my soldiers' poem commemorative of Decoration day-
believe me I appreciate your kind mention-" (Corr 3: 181). Whitman's letter 
would seem to indicate that another newspaper reprinted Sholes' article, but 
it has not been located to date. Upon learning that Whitman was in London, 
a good deal closer than Camden to Des Moines, Sholes traveled to Bucke's 
home to meet his revered poet. Whitman had little to say of the meeting, 
recording in the daybooks only that "C H Sholes called" and that they met in 
"Dr B's library-London" (DBN 193). There appears to have been no further 
communication between the two men. 
Minnesota Historical Society Press TED GENOWAYS 
187 


English

"Ashes of Soldiers": Walt Whitman and C. H. Sholes, A New Letter and a Newspaper Article

Bauerlein, Mark

Reynolds, David S., ed., A Historical Guide to Walt Whitman [review]

Walt Whitman: A Current Bibliography, Fall 2001

Back Matter, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, vol. 19, no. 1

Front Matter, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, vol. 19, no. 1

Interview with Dacy (40-44) on his ideas about Whitman, followed by four new Whitman-related poems by Dacey: "Walt Whitman to Thomas Eakins: From the Lost Correspondence" (44-45), "Chapter and Verse in Fort Worth" (46-47), "Headwaters" (47-49), and "Talcott Williams" (49-51)

Dacey, Philip

Philip Dacey on Whitman: An Interview and Four New Poems

Uses Gerard Genette's theory of the "paratext" to examine how "Whitman manipulates the elements surrounding Leaves of Grass and turns them into 'Leaves-Droppings'" (the group of nine reviews of Leaves, Emerson's letter to Whitman, and Whitman's reply to Emerson) appended to the 1856 edition of Leaves and arranged by Whitman so as to build a "narrative of the virtues of the American rude tongue.

Whitley, Edward

Presenting Walt Whitman: "Leaves-Droppings" as Paratext

Back Matter, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, vol. 18, no. 4

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