“If you call on me I will tell you what I know of Walt”: Unrecorded Assessment of Walter and Walt Whitman by William Booth, Brooklyn Carpenter

Abstract

Drawing on a previously unrecorded letter by a Brooklyn carpenter, William C. Booth, which describes his assessment of Walter and Walt Whitman, his business and personal relationships with both, and willingness to disclose more about Walt in person, this essay excavates the contexts and contents of this letter, its writer and recipient, and its contributions to the biographies of Walter and Walt Whitman. It connects the Whitman family to the Booths, prominent Brooklyn homebuilders who employed Walter when the Whitman family returned from Long Island. It also highlights the previously undocumented friendship between William Booth and Walt Whitman prior to the publication of Leaves of Grass.