FEINBERG/WHITMAN                GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE              Wells, S.R.      June 7, 1856  (DCN 145)
Box 19 Folder 2[*Fowler & Wells*]
Bookbinding
from Wells
Walt. Whitman,
Brooklyn, N.Y.
private.
Office of Life Illustrated
A JOURNAL OF
Entertainment, Improvement, Progress.
Published weekly, at $2.00 a year, in advance,
BY FOWLER AND WELLS,
308 Broadway, New York.
SCIENCE. ART. LITERATURE.
New York, June 6, 1856
Friend Whitman
After "duly con-
sidering," we have
concluded that it
is best for us to
insist on the Omission
of certain abjectionable
passages in Leaves
of Grass or decline
publishing it. We
could give twenty 
reasons for this, 
but the fact will 
be enough for you to know.We are not in a 
position, at present,
to experiment. We must 
not venture.
Again, It will be
better for you to have
the work published
by clean hands. i.e.
by a House, not now 
committed to unpopular
notions. We are not
in favor, with the
conservatives, and a 
more orthodox House
would do better for 
you. Try the Masons, 
Partons publishers, (they
publish Fanny Fern's works.)
They are rich and enterprising
and I guess would 
publish Leaves of Grass
on fair terms.
Truly Yours,
S.R. Wells1856 June 7              S.R. Wells to Whitman; from Boston.  A.L.S. with
envelope (4p. 24 x 14 cm.)

Written on Fowler & Wells stationery. Fearing that the publishing house 
would be subjected to criticism, Wells writes: "We have concluded that it is
best for us to insist on the omission of certain objectionable passages in
Leaves of Grass, or decline publishing it. We could give twenty reasons for
this, but the fact will be enough for you to know we are not in a position at 
the present to experiment. We must not venture."

According to John Burroughs' Notes on Walt Whitman (New York,
American News Co., 1867, p. 19) Fowler and Wells printed and bound 1000
copies of the second edition of Leaves of Grass and then quietly asked to be
excused from continuing the book any further.

The envelope inscribed by Whitman: "Fowler & Wells".      {145}