Hamlin Garland to Walt Whitman, 24 November 1886
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Jamaica Plain
Boston.
Mass.
11/24/86.
Mr. Walt Whitman.
It is with profound sorrow that I read in the papers the news that you are again suffering from your old trouble. I trust it is not so serious as reported. My regard for you is so great that I am very sorry, not to be able to buy more copies of your books and thus give a more substantial token of sympathy.
I am an enthusiastic reader of
your books, both volumes of which
I have within reach of hand.
I am, everywhere in my teaching
and writing, making your claims
felt and shall continue to do so.
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I have demonstrated (what of course
you know) that there is no veil—no
impediment—between your mind
and your audience, when your
writings are voiced. The formlessness
is only seeming not real.
I have never read a page of your poetry, or quoted a line, that has not commanded admiration. The music is there and the grandeur of thought is there, if the reader reads, guided by the sense and not by the external lining or paragraphing. Even very young pupils feel the thrill of the deep rolling music though the thought may be too profound for them to grasp.
In a course of lectures before the
Boston School of Oratory last summer
I made a test of the matter. I do
not think a single pupil held out
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against my arguments supplemented
by readings from your work.
The trouble is they get at your work through the daily press or through the defenders of Longfellow or Tennyson (whom it is supposed you utterly antagonize). When it is brought to them by one who appreciates and measurably understands your methods and ideals I do not think there is any doubt of the favorable result. I have found much opposition but it was mostly ignorant & misled.
I am a young man of very ordinary attainments and do not presume to do more than to give you a glimpse of the temper of that public which would not do you wrong, deliberately, but who by reason of the causes hinted at above, fail to get at the transcendent power of "Leaves of Grass."
If I have given you the impression
that I believe in you and strive
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to interpret you, you will not
feel that I have over-stepped the
privileges of a pupil in the presence of a great teacher.
The enclosed slip is a meagre
out-line of a volume which I am
writing and which I hope to get out this
coming spring. As the motto-page
of this volume I have used a paragraph
from your "Collect" which
is entitled "Foundation Stayed—then
Others." While it is not strictly
essential to the book, yet I should
esteem it a favor if you
consent to its use. One sentence,
"In nothing is there more evolution
than in the American mind,"
I have also used in company
with Spencer's great law of progress
upon my title page. It helped
to decide the title, which is: The Evolution
of American Thought:1 an outline
study of the leading phases of American
Literature etc. In the latter part
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of the volume I have treated of
the Age of Democracy and its thought,
taking as foundation the splendid
utterances of Mr. Paine upon the modern
age. It is in this chapter that
I place your work. I quote from
you quite largely both in treating
of your writings and in treating
the general theme of present and
future democratic ideals. I hope
to be able to please you with my
treatment of your great work.
Beside this I am preparing special
lectures upon the same subject.
Have you any objection to the
quotations which I find if necessary
to use? In conclusion let me
say that without any bias in your
favor, (rather the opposite from newspapers)
your poems thrilled me, reversed many
of my ideas, confirmed me in others,
helped to make me what I am. I
am a border-man; born in Wisconsin
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and raised on the prairie &
frontier. I am a disciple of Mr. Spencer
and therefore strive at comparative methods
of criticism. That your poems should
thus convert me, is to me a revelation
of their power, especially when I can
convince others in the same manner.
And my revered friend (for I feel you are a friend) think of me as one who radiates the principles of the modern age, and who will in his best manner (poor at best) strive to make his hearers and readers better aware of the goodness and grandeur of the "Good Gray Poet" and his elemental lines.
Your readers are increasing, and may you live to see the circle infinitely extended, is my fervent hope. I do not expect a reply to this other than the signification whether I may quote you or not. I wish I might see and talk with you but that is not possible except through your volumes.
I am most sincerely yours, Hamlin Garland.
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Garland
see notes Aug 18, '88
Correspondent:
Hamlin Garland
(1860–1940) was an American novelist and autobiographer, known especially
for his works about the hardships of farm life in the American Midwest. For his
relationship to Whitman, see Thomas K. Dean, "Garland, Hamlin," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. Garland's "The Evolution of American Thought" was never published; the manuscript of the book does contain a chapter on Whitman. [back]