ABSTRACT
In 1907, at the age of 85, Caroline Wells Healey Dall wrote, “I have been trying all my life to defend the purity of Elizabeth Whitman.”1 Believing she had uncovered new evidence that would do so, Dall asserted, “My work is done. I have found the light I sought”(Dall, Papers SL). She asked that 50 copies of her 1875 book about Whitman, The Romance of the Association, be reprinted with this new information appended, and she made provisions to fund this reprint from her estate following her death; Dall further indicated a copy should be given to every leading public library in New England (Dall, Papers SL).
