The Walt Whitman Archive
Commentary
Selected Criticism
Title: Redpath, James [1833–1891]
Author: LeMaster, J.R.
Print source: J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings, eds., Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), reproduced by permission.
In a time when lyceums were failing, James Redpath began the Boston Lyceum Bureau in 1869. In order to provide his audience variety he booked such speakers as Emerson and Mark Twain. Abolitionist author of The Public Life of Captain John Brown and editor of the North American Review, Redpath published some of Whitman's articles. Redpath was a writer for the firm of Thayer and Eldridge, who were closely identified with abolition. Although he remained a moderate, Whitman befriended such radical writers as Redpath and William Douglas O'Connor.
In a long letter written from Washington to Redpath dated 8 August 1863 Whitman asked for his friend's help in soliciting funds to carry on his work in the hospitals there. A short time later, 21 October 1863, Whitman wrote Redpath about publishing a book entitled Memoranda of a Year, but nothing came of it. It was published by the author in 1876 as Memoranda During the War and was included in Two Rivulets in the same year. For details see especially volumes 1, 2, and 4 of The Correspondence, edited by Edwin Haviland Miller, and volume 2 of Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden.
Bibliography
Allen, Gay Wilson. The Solitary Singer: A Critical Biography of Walt Whitman. 1955. Rev. ed. 1967. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1985.
Kaplan, Justin. Walt Whitman: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980.
Myerson, Joel. Walt Whitman: A Descriptive Bibliography. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1993.
Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography. New York: Knopf, 1995
Whitman, Walt. Selected Letters of Walt Whitman. Ed. Edwin Haviland Miller. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1990.