To my only Brother, who for nearly two years has been a helpless sufferer in Santiago, I am sending a specially prepared Birthday Book: and it is my very earnest wish to obtain for insertion in my Book the name of your most honored self.
I trust you will graciously pardon my freedom in asking the favour of your sign-manual on enclosed slip; and if you can possibly oblige in this direction the Book will ever be most gratefully remembered by
Your obedient servant R. Watson1 loc_jp.00048_large.jpg loc_jp.00049_large.jpg loc_jp.00050_large.jpgCorrespondent:
Robert Spence Watson (1837–1911), a labor
reformer, politician, writer, and distinguished lawyer, was apparently one of
William Michael Rossetti's friends and among the early English admirers of Leaves of Grass. Whitman had sent a set of books on August 30, 1876. On September 29, 1884, Watson requested an inscribed copy of Leaves of Grass.