Your letter rec'd & welcomed as always—My visit to N Y was a hasty flash only—I am more & more wretchedly physically disabled, & feel better off here in my own den—the "Anne Gilchrist" book2 is a wonderfully well done Vol. & interesting very to me because I knew & loved Mrs. G—but I doubt whether it contains much (or any thing) for you—I can loan you my copy if you wish—I will certainly keep you posted ab't myself, or any literary movement or change or happening of my work—
Walt WhitmanCorrespondent:
Karl Knortz
(1841–1918) was born in Prussia and came to the U.S. in 1863. He was the
author of many books and articles on German-American affairs and was
superintendent of German instruction in Evansville, Ind., from 1892 to 1905. See
The American-German Review 13 (December 1946),
27–30. His first published criticism of Whitman appeared in the New York
Staats-Zeitung Sonntagsblatt on December 17, 1882,
and he worked with Thomas W. H. Rolleston on the first book-length translation
of Whitman's poetry, published as Grashalme in 1889. For
more information about Knortz, see Walter Grünzweig, "Knortz, Karl (1841–1918)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).