Horace Traubel

[1] Traubel was closely associated with the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States and published a monthly literary magazine called The Conservator from 1890 until the time of his death.

[2] His father, Maurice Traubel, had been born in Germany before emigrating to the United States as a young man, where he settled in Philadelphia and learned the trade of lithography.

[2] Early in his life he came to know Walt Whitman, whose volume of poetry Leaves of Grass was the subject of much hostile commentary among the literary critics of the day.

[4] The family moved from Philadelphia to neighboring Camden, New Jersey, but Traubel maintained an office across the Delaware River in the big city for years afterwards.

[3] Traubel was the author of many unsigned editorials in early issues of that paper and contributed a daily essay, often dealing with a spiritual topic.

[3] Traubel was a regular correspondent of a number of leading political radicals of his day, including Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs, anarchist Emma Goldman, Helen Keller, and California novelist Upton Sinclair.

[9] A close personal friend and literary heir of Walt Whitman, Traubel was a key figure in memorializing the great American poet.