Whitman Family Bible Finds New Home at Poet's Birthplace

Image: L-R: Cynthia Shor, executive director, Walt Whitman birthplace; Dr. William Walter, chairman, board of trustees, Walt Whitman Birthplace Association; Sharon Swertfager Wilson; Nicole Wilson and Supervisor Frank Petrone.

A bible inscribed by poet Walt Whitman is now at the Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site in Huntington Station.

The famous poet had given the bible to his sister, Mary Elizabeth Van Nostrand as a Christmas gift in 1878. In the bible, Whitman inscribed all the immediate family’s births, deaths and marriages up to the date of the gift.

Inside the bible, he pasted a white slip of paper and wrote, “Mary Elizabeth Van Nostrand from her brother, Walt Whitman, Christmas 1878-79.” Directly below that slip, he pasted a smaller slip with five lines of poetry from “Beyond,” a popular mourning poem by Mrs. J.E. Akers.

The bible, which had stayed in the family’s possession, was donated to the historic site by Natalie Swartfager Person, the widow of Walter Whitman Swertfager, Whitman’s great-great-grandnephew. Person now lives in Sarasota, Florida.

It was unveiled at a Nov. 14 ceremony at Whitman’s Birthplace by Huntington Town Supervisor Frank Petrone, who officially accepted the donation on behalf of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association Board of Trustees and the town.

The ceremony included a brief video of Persons presenting the bible to Walt Whitman Birthplace executive director Cynthia Shor. While Persons was unable to be at the Nov. 14 event, her daughter Sharon Swertfager Wilson and two granddaughters, Nicole and Stephanie Wilson, attended, as did several Whitman descendants who live on Long Island.