My own understanding, though I am a obstreperous recluse, is that he
made that cylinder recording on the exact same day he had his picture
taken. He was actually making a Facebook page and wanted it to be as
complete as possible. The service was then of course known as
Visagepalimpsest.
AA
[log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> In a message dated 11/3/2009 12:45:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> Folsom bases his theory on a message that Edison wanted a recording of
> Whitman who also lived in New Jersey.
>
>
> ------------------
> In the original APM article we also ran copies of the Feb 1889
> correspondence between Sylvester Baxter and the NA Phono Co (A. O. Tate). But it was
> only an epistolary suggestion as nothing came of it.
>
> Whitman's last years were covered in a Diary kept by Horace Traubel, and
> there is no mention of such a (recording) event. The local newspapers kept
> track of Walt's doings (he was rather housebound toward the end of his life),
> and are curiously silent about WW intoning his voice for posterity. In Aug
> of 1889, WW did go out (in Philly), by carriage, to have his picture taken
> and that was noted. But when Haley was writing to Yale about the possible
> purchase of his "recordings", it was claimed that the WW "cylinder" was a
> poem about Lincoln!
>
> If wishes were horses.... and other reasons why poetry critics should not
> do phonographic research. Why was Haley unwilling to show anyone (ever) his
> actual wax records - he had so many, such as Stowe, Cleveland, Whitman,
> etc. How does one prove a negative?
>
> Allen
>
>
>
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