Camden, New Jersey—U S America
Sept 10, '76
Dear friend1,
I wrote to you three [or] four days ago,2 by which you must have recd partial list. The list on the other sheet will more fully show you what books I
have sent, comprising I believe all the names & remitting subscribers
you have sent me—Your two (principal) remittances £28.4 (April 19) and £45.9.6.
(June 20) were accompanied with lists of subscribers' am'ts & addresses—the names on which lists & addresses I have carefully
followed & sent to. I hope & think I have not missed any. If you
discover or know of any so missed, pray notify me at once.
Looking over the pretty voluminous correspondence & extracts you have sent me so
kindly, the last six months, there appear to be a number of other
names, both men's & women's, mentioned, or writing themselves, as ordering the
books in letters to you. But of course I have exclusively confined myself
to the names & addresses specified in the lists accompanying your
remittance–letters, above alluded to. I have been somewhat exercised about
those other names.
- Prof Atkinson3
- " Armstrong4
- A G B5
- G L Cathcart6
- Mrs. Deschamps7
- J D8
- Lady Hardy9
- Harold Littledale
- C W S10
- Dr Todhunter11
☞ Nothing has been sent to any of these
- (D G Rossetti12
- C A Howell
- J T Nettleship13 for self & others
- H G Dakyns14
- Herbert Herkomer15
- Roden Noel16
- A C Swinburne17
- G W Foote18
- Cicely Marston19
- & several others
—but know no other course than to
confine myself to sending
to the addresses on your remittance lists only—which I have done. Any errors or
oversights will be gladly & promptly corrected on information.
I have
now plenty of Books, & orders will be complied with promptly. The delay of the
last two months in getting ready my second instalment of the 1876 Edition, has annoyed me
much—but it is past—& I have as I believe forwarded now every British paid
subscriber his or her books, (duplicate sets are yet to go to three or four)—A parcel
of 17 Vols. has gone by Express to Robt Buchanan
20 to subscribers, sent through him to me—Prof. Dowden's
21 4 sets specified in your list have been sent to his
subscribers to their addresses, & Mr. Conway's 3 sets (ordered in his letter to me) to
theirs
22—It is now some weeks since I have heard from
you. I want to hear about Mrs. Gilchrist.
23
Walt Whitman
Notes
- 1. William Michael Rossetti (1829–1915), brother
of Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti, was an English editor and a champion of
Whitman's work. In 1868, Rossetti edited Whitman's Poems,
selected from the 1867 Leaves of Grass. Whitman referred
to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871, letter to Frederick S. Ellis. Nonetheless,
the edition provided a major boost to Whitman's reputation, and Rossetti would
remain a staunch supporter for the rest of Whitman's life, drawing in
subscribers to the 1876 Leaves of Grass and fundraising
for Whitman in England. For more on Whitman's relationship with Rossetti, see
Sherwood Smith, "Rossetti, William Michael (1829–1915)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 2. Walt Whitman probably meant the letter of
September 1, 1876. [back]
- 3. Probably Robert Atkinson
(1839–1908), professor of romance languages at Trinity College,
Dublin. [back]
- 4. Probably Edward Armstrong (1846–
1928), English historian and lecturer at Oxford. [back]
- 5. Perhaps A. C. de Burgh, to whom Walt
Whitman sent two volumes on September 7, 1876, in care of T. W. H. Rolleston in
Dublin; the entry, however, was later deleted (Commonplace Book, Charles E.
Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
- 6. Probably the son of Sir George Cathcart
(1749–1854). [back]
- 7. Perhaps Chrissie Deschamps, mentioned in
Whitman's November 4, 1873 letter to Daniel G.
Gillette. [back]
- 8. Probably Edward Dowden's clergyman
brother, John (see Whitman's January 18, 1872
letter to Edward Dowden). [back]
- 9. Walt Whitman sent the 1876 set to Lady
Hardy in London on October 24, 1876 (Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg
Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.). She was probably the wife of Herbert Hardy, first Baron
Cozens-Hardy (1838–1920), an English judge. [back]
- 10. Walt Whitman sent two volumes to C. W.
Sheppard at Horsham, England, on September 6, 1876 (Commonplace Book, Charles E.
Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
- 11. Dowden characterized Dr. John Todhunter
(1839–1916) as "a man of science, & a mystic—a Quaker."
Todhunter later held a chair in English literature at Alexandria College in
Dublin, and wrote Study of Shelley (1880), in which he
termed Shelley, Hugo, and Walt Whitman the three poets of democracy. See Harold
Blodgett, Walt Whitman in England (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1934), 180. [back]
- 12. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), brother of
Christina and William Michael Rossetti, was an English poet, translator, and
painter. His highly stylized portraits of women influenced the development of
the Symbolist movement in Europe. His brother William Michael Rossetti was one
of Whitman's most influential European editors and supporters. [back]
- 13. See also Whitman's September 1, 1876 to William Michael Rossetti. Walt
Whitman sent two books to John Trivett Nettleship on October 24, 1876
(Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman,
1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
- 14. Walt Whitman mailed two volumes to Dakyns
at Clifton College, Bristol, on October 24, 1876 (Commonplace Book, Charles E.
Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
- 15. Sir Hubert von Herkomer
(1849–1914), a Bavarian painter who resided in England and was professor
of Fine Arts at Oxford from 1885 to 1894. He was correctly cited as "Hubert" in
the draft of this letter as well as in Whitman's Commonplace Book, in which
Whitman noted forwarding two volumes on October 24, 1876 (Charles E. Feinberg
Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.). [back]
- 16. A poet and the author of a critical
notice of Walt Whitman in Dark Blue in 1871 (see
Whitman's January 30, 1872 letter to Rossetti).
Noel was hurt because Richard Maurice Bucke did not include the essay in his
biography; see Noel's letters to Walt Whitman of March
30, 1886 and May 16, 1886. [back]
- 17. The British poet, critic, playwright, and novelist
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) was one of Whitman's
earliest English admirers. At the conclusion of William Blake:
A Critical Essay (1868), Swinburne pointed out similarities between
Whitman and Blake, and praised "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" and "When
Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," which he termed "the most sweet and
sonorous nocturn ever chanted in the church of the world" (300–303). His
famous lyric "To Walt Whitman in America" is included in Songs
before Sunrise (1871). For the story of Swinburne's veneration of
Whitman and his later recantation, see two essays by Terry L. Meyers, "Swinburne and Whitman: Further Evidence," Walt
Whitman Quarterly Review 14 (Summer 1996), 1–11 and "A
Note on Swinburne and Whitman," Walt Whitman Quarterly
Review 21 (Summer 2003), 38–39. [back]
- 18. George William Foote (1850–1915), a
freethinker, was the author of many pamphlets attacking Christianity. Foote did
not forward £3 to Walt Whitman. Rossetti mentioned on August 17, 1877, that he had called the failure to pay to Foote's
attention. On February 12, 1878, Whitman cited a letter from Foote, who promised
to send the sum, which he alleged had been stolen by an employee (Commonplace
Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman,
1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). After the entry the
poet later wrote "fraud." [back]
- 19. The sister of Philip Bourke Marston (for
Marston, see Whitman's September 7, 1876 letter to
Marston). [back]
- 20. See Whitman's September 4, 1876 letter to Buchanan. [back]
- 21. Edward Dowden (1843–1913), professor of
English literature at the University of Dublin, was one of the first to
critically appreciate Whitman's poetry, particularly abroad, and was primarily
responsible for Whitman's popularity among students in Dublin. In July 1871,
Dowden penned a glowing review of Whitman's work in the Westminster Review entitled "The Poetry of Democracy: Walt Whitman," in which Dowden described
Whitman as "a man unlike any of his predecessors. . . . Bard of America, and
Bard of democracy." In 1888, Whitman observed to Traubel: "Dowden is a book-man:
but he is also and more particularly a man-man: I guess that is where we
connect" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Sunday, June 10, 1888, 299). For more, see Philip W. Leon, "Dowden, Edward (1843–1913)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 22. Conway's letter to Walt Whitman is not
extant; see also Whitman's September 5, 1876
letter to Conway. Whitman had received £6 from Conway on June 12, 1876
(Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman,
1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
- 23. Gilchrist arrived in Philadelphia on
September 10, 1876 (Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the
Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.). [back]