Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Letters
  3. Correspondence
  4. loc.02171

Herbert Gilchrist to Walt Whitman, 13 December 1880

About This Item

  • Title: Herbert Gilchrist to Walt Whitman, 13 December 1880
  • Date: December 13, 1880
  • Creator(s): Herbert Gilchrist
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.02171
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Alicia Bones Vince Moran Anthony Dreesen Nicole Gray Stefan Schöberlein
  • Cite this page: Gilchrist, Herbert. "Herbert Gilchrist to Walt Whitman, 13 December 1880." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 05 January 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.02171.xml (TEI)
 loc.02171.001.jpg Kents Corner1 Well Road Hampstead Dec 13th 1880. My dear Walt

Mother has been very ill;2 but is a little better now: & with grt​ care will I hope be very much better. You will do me a kind service if you will receive this money order for payment of duty I havent the remotest idea how much it is & if you will let me know the difference I will remit it. I should be glad if Mrs Stafford3 could have the book by Xmas day.

Herbert H Gilchrist  loc.02171.002.jpg  loc.02171.003.jpg  loc.02171.004.jpg

Notes

  • 1. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist (1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro, "Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 2. Anne Burrows Gilchrist (1828–1885) was the author of one of the first significant pieces of criticism on Leaves of Grass, titled "A Woman's Estimate of Walt Whitman (From Late Letters by an English Lady to W. M. Rossetti)," The Radical 7 (May 1870), 345–59. Gilchrist's long correspondence with Whitman indicates that she had fallen in love with the poet after reading his work; when the pair met in 1876 when she moved to Philadelphia, Whitman never fully returned her affection, although their friendship deepened after that meeting. For more information on their relationship, see Marion Walker Alcaro, "Gilchrist, Anne Burrows (1828–1885)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 3. Susan M. Lamb Stafford (1833–1910) was the mother of Harry Stafford (1858–1918), who, in 1876, became a close friend of Whitman while working at the printing office of the Camden New Republic. Whitman regularly visited the Staffords at their family farm near Kirkwood, New Jersey. Whitman enjoyed the atmosphere and tranquility that the farm provided and would often stay for weeks at a time (see David G. Miller, "Stafford, George and Susan M.," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings [New York: Garland Publishing, 1998], 685). [back]
Back to top