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Walt Whitman to Anne Gilchrist, 12 December [1878]

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Anne Gilchrist, 12 December [1878]
  • Date: December 12, 1878
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: upa.00194
  • Source: Walt Whitman Collection, 1842–1957, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1964), 142. 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 Grace Thomas Anthony Dreesen Kevin McMullen
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Anne Gilchrist, 12 December [1878]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 24 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: upa.00194.xml (TEI)
431 Stevens Street Camden Dec 12 4½ p m Dear friend

All about as usual—Rec'd​ a London letter day before yesterday, purchasing six sets of my books & a dozen Democratic Vistas (separate)—& remitting the pay1—(come in good for Christmas pocket money)—

Spent last evening till midnight with my friend Dr Bucke, of Canada, Supt​ of the great Gov't​ Insane Asylum, & Mrs B, who are over here just for a day or so at Continental Hotel, Phila:2—They return to N Y this afternoon, & will call upon you—I have known Doctor B for a couple of years, & what I know, I like well—Mrs B, mother of a large family of children, seems to me a woman one would love & respect more & more as one knew her—But you will see them—they return to London, Canada, in a few days—Your & Herby's letters rec'd​ —My sister & brother well—heavy storms & gales here, but brighter to-day—

Walt Whitman

Notes

  • 1. The transaction with Trübner & Co. See the letter from Whitman to Josiah Child of December 10, 1878. [back]
  • 2. On this occasion, Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke presented to Whitman a copy of Man's Moral Nature (1879): "I dedicate this book to the man who inspired it—to the man who of all men past and present that I have known has the most exalted moral nature—to WALT WHITMAN." During the year, Bucke sent to Whitman his pamphlet entitled The Moral Nature and the Great Sympathetic (1878) "with the author's affectionate regards" (presentation copy in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
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