FEINBERG/WHITMAN LITERARY FILE BOOK FILE--Lot G (1881-82) Suppression Miscellany Box 22 Folder 3[*7297*] Heywood, Ezra H. An open letter to Walt Whitman. Published by Angela T. Heywood. Nov. 5, 1882, In Leaflet literature, Princeton, Mass. 1 L. 30 X 17 cm. Also included on page is R. W. Emerson's letter to W. Whitman, Concord, Mass, July 21, 1855 Accompanied by typed notes (1p.) on E. H. Heywood.Leaflet Literature. PUBLISHED BY ANGELA T. HEYWOOD. AN OPEN LETTER TO WALT WHITMAN. PRINCETON, MASS., NOV. 5, Y.L. 10. Dear Sir:--Knowing of your illness, through newspaper reports, I do not like to intrude anything upon you, but think perhaps you & those standing near you would like to know of the latest raid on Leaves of Grass--or rather on printed extracts from it--for which alleged "offence" I was arrested, by Anthony Comstock, Oct. 26th, & am held for trial, (first hearing), Nov. 16th, in U.S. Court, 140 Tremont St., Boston, before Commissioner Henry L. Hallett. Nov. 2, 1877, Comstock came as "E. Edgewell" a Free Lover; this time he was a Labor Reformer, masked under three different aliases & telling a dozen lies to get what he calls "evidence." As, Mar. 18, 1873, he wrote from Washington to N.Y. Doctors signing himself "Miss Anna E. Ray" a treasury clerk three months on with child wanting to procure abortion; as May 9, 1878, signing himself "Mrs. Farnsworth" he got a vaginal syringe of Dr. Sara B. Chase and arrested her for selling him one; as when, June 14, 1878, (see N.Y. Tribune report), he with other men went into an ill-famed house on Greene st., hired young girls to go into a closed room with them, disrobe & show their nude persons to him & the men & then seized them for "indecent exposure," so now Comstock is the same lying, rude, lascivious decoy he has always been. Twenty one years ago, when acting General Agent of the Massachusetts, (Garrison-Phillips) Anti-Slavery Society in Boston, & occasional "preacher" for the 28th Congregational Society in Music Hall, I bought your book & read extracts from it from Theodore Parker's Pulpit! Nobody then thought of "obscenity" in connection with it,--there being a general & hearty response to the high eulogium pronounced upon the book by Mr. Emerson in 1855. The Thayer-Eldridge edition of 1861 has been near me ever since,--the Osgood-Co., reprint, keeping it company since its issue. We had not thought of selling the book until the effort to suppress it, last Spring, when we at once put it into our trade list & shall stand or fall on our right & duty to circulate it. In order to assert in the most direct way possible citizen's right to acquire & impart knowledge denied by "obscenists" we preprinted in AUG. WORD, without note or comment, the two condemned poems & afterwards issued them on a single slip as "The Word Extra" on which the prosecution now comes. Gladly would we have printed fuller extracts & given explanations of the high moral purpose of these poems but our space is very limited--THE WORD being only a little monthly--besides our contract with the Air is to furnish truth, ideas, not brains to readers. I inclose one of the slips,-- the bit of red cloth which now enrages the United-States, politico-ecclesiastical bull tearing towards us. Human language contains no finer type of manly sympathy for the supposed "fallen," no more impressive portraiture of the divinity of motherhood than is apparent in these two "obscene" poems. I inclose also the Resolutions adopted by the Free Love Convention in Boston last May--in which Dr. J.H. Swain, the old-line Anti-Slavery, Woman Suffrage & Socialistic reformer read these two poems to the people, three times, at as many different sessions, as the most significant & interesting Scriptures of these times presentable. Since my release by President Hayes, Dec. 19, 1878, from Dedham Jail where I was serving out a two-years' sentence for alleged-mailing a copy of my own book, Cupid's Yokes, I was slowly becoming comparatively, "respectable" again, when lo suddenly I am "of no reputation"! As a notable instance of what you call "color-blindness" I inclose a slip from the last Truth Seeker written by D.M. Bennett who himself served out a year's sentence in Albany Penitentiary for alleged-mailing Cupid's Yokes. What have citizens done that they are afraid or ashamed now? I was glad to reprint extended extracts from a Philadelphia paper, relative to your book, in Nov. WORD & will send you it soon. As you doubtless know your book is openly advertised in at least one Boston newspaper, Benj. R. Tucker, editor of Liberty inviting, defying Oliver Stevens, Anthony Comstock, Postmaster Tobey or any other repressive regulator of morals to order a copy which he promises to send by mail or otherwise deliver to any address! It is also sold on the streets by Josephine S. Tilton, the persistent Socialist, once imprisoned for her Faith--many buying it indeed in book-stores & at news-stands all over New England. Though the "sealed orders" of events which we must all obey, sent Comstock up here to our Mountain-Home perch in the Air to snatch me, a comparatively old jail bird, first. Mr. Tucker, if they convict me, will very likely next be "elected" as one of my fellow U.S. Convicts in Dedham Jail. The cherished son of Mr. & Mrs. A.R. Tucker, prominent & highly respected citizens of New Bedford, Mass., he is a fine French scholar, translator of Proudhon, friend of Ruskin, was associate editor of THE WORD, later editor & publisher of the Radical Review & now one of the editors of the Boston Daily Globe. The outlook is rather rough for so fine a young man; but he deliberately affronts the prince of politico-religious devils; not his well-trained ability, good looks, culture or gentlemanly qualities will save him, for Comstock like Death loves a shining mark. I was unconditionally released from Dedham Jail because President Hayes & Att'y Gen'l Devens, who know something of law & morals, saw my book was not one of the class of publications intended to be suppressed by the statute. We told the Court so at the outset. Jan. 13, 1879, Gen. Devens wrote Hon. Elizur Wright, relative to Mr. Bennett's then impending trial & imprisonment, "I do not confound it, (Cupid's Yokes) with those obscene publications the effect and object of which is to excite the imagination and inflame the passions." What lawyer or judge will risk his reputation, or accredited sanity even, on a different opinion of Leaves of Grass--or any portion of it now? Cupid's Yokes proclaims the Free-Love Faith, raises points in physiological ethics, stirpiculture, which have been favorite themes among social philosophers from Plato to Andrews. But the dark spirit of persecution which hanged Quakers, mobbed Abolitionists & Free Lovers now revisits Massachusetts to hunt down & exterminate unpopular reformers who assert Personal Liberty, freedom of the press, of the mails and the right of private judgement in morals. In this tragic struggle for liberty & life we are sustained by the "Wit & Wisdom" of your inspirations & shall be glad of any suggestions from you or your immediate comrades relative to the defense. Trusting you will soon recover & yet spend many jocund years in the form; rejoicing in the poetic fervor, the divine Afflatus which you incarnate I am ever your greatly indebted reader. Ezra H. Heywood. Walt Whitman Esq., Camden, N.J. R.W. EMERSON, TO WALT WHITMAN. CONCORD, MASS., JULY 21, 1855. DEAR SIR: I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of "Leaves of Grass." I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy. It meets the demand I am always making of what seemed the sterile and stingy nature, as if too much handiwork or too much lymph in the temperament were making our Western wits fat and mean. I give you joy of your free and brave thought. I have great joy in it. I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the courage of treatment which so delights us and which large perception only can inspire. I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. It has the best merits, namely, of fortifying and encouraging. I did not know, until I last night saw the book advertised in newspapers, that I could trust the name as real and available for a post-office. I wish to see my benefactor, and have felt much like striking my tasks and visiting New York to pay you my respects. R.W. EMERSON. CAMDEN, N.J., MAY 23,'82 J.R. OSGOOD & CO.: DEAR SIRS; Yours of 21st rec'd, with the curious list, (I suppose of course from the District Attorney), of "suggestions," lines, pages, pieces, &c., to be "expunged." The list, whole and several, is rejected by me, and will not be thought of under any circumstances. Respectfully, WALT WHITMAN. But Jesus stooped down & with His finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking Him He lifted up Himself & said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground...and Jesus was left alone & the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up Himself & saw none but the woman, He said unto her: Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said No man, Lord. Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more. WORD OFFICE, PRINCETON, MASS.