[Whitman wrote1 to ask that copies of "A Backward Glance
on My Own Road" be sent to Edward Dowden, John A. Symonds, T. W. H. Rolleston,
William D. O'Connor.]2
Correspondent:
Jeannette Leonard Gilder (1849–1916) helped
her brother, Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909), edit Scribner's Monthly and then, with another brother, Joseph Benson
Gilder (1858–1936), co-edited the Critic (which she
co-founded in 1881). For more, see Susan L. Roberson, "Gilder, Jeannette L. (1849–1916)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. The location of the
manuscript letter is presently unknown. The address on the envelope is J L &
J B Gilder | Critic Office | 20 Lafayette PLace | New
York City | Philadelphia PA. | Jan 9 84 | 1 PM; P.O. | 1-9-84 | 6 P | N.Y. | D
1-9-84 | 9 P | N.Y. [back]
- 2. See Daybooks and Notebooks, ed. William White (New York: New York
University Press, 1978), 2:327. On January 10, 1884, Whitman received slips of
the article from The Critic; however, there was no word
whether the copies had been sent to these friends. That
day he wrote the Gilders to say "If not already mailed, you need not do it—I will attend to it—." Whitman must
have concluded that the copies were not sent by the Gilders because, on January
11, he entered a list in his Daybooks and Notebooks of
people to whom he had sent the article, including those listed above
(2:326–27). [back]