I see by the papers that you may be going to England. If you go you must see Wm Bell Scott,2 the painter and poet, the first (unless, Dante Rossetti3 were earlier) of your English admirers. He will be glad to welcome you. And I glad to give you a note of introduction when I know you are going. We are old friends and regular correspondents, and I had much delightful time with him in England and Scotland during 1883 and '84, being then across the water.
You will tell me too if I can be of other use to you. I may loc.03234.002_large.jpg be visiting the dear old land again next year, probably having to look after the bringing out of a book—on Wood Engraving.
As I am writing I think of something to send you, which ought to have come to you before. It is a bit of home-production, setting up, printing, binding and all. You'll not value it less for that.
Need I say that I am glad to see a good report of your health and that, however drifted off—as seems too generally our human fate—I am always pleased to think of you. Let me hear from you and believe me always
heartily yours WJ Linton loc.03234.003_large.jpg from Linton July 1 '85 see notes Oct 6 1888 loc.03234.004_large.jpgCorrespondent:
William J. Linton
(1812–1897), a British-born wood engraver, came to the United States in
1866 and settled near New Haven, Connecticut. He illustrated the works of John
Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, and
others, wrote the "indispensable" History of Wood-Engraving in
America (1882), and edited Poetry of America,
1776–1876 (London, 1878), in which appeared eight of Whitman's
poems as well as a frontispiece engraving of the poet. According to his Threescore and Ten Years, 1820 to
1890—Recollections (1894), 216–217, Linton met with Whitman
in Washington and later visited him in Camden (which Whitman reported in his
November 9, 1873, letter to Peter Doyle): "I
liked the man much, a fine-natured, good-hearted, big fellow, . . . a true poet
who could not write poetry, much of wilfulness accounting for his neglect of form."