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February 3. 87
Pall Mall Gazette
Northumberland Street,
Strand.1
Friend Whitman
Many thanks for your letter and the papers you sent, most of which we have quoted in the paper. I am sorry, however, to see in The Camden Courier you sent me, the following extract from an
interview in The Philadelphia Press:
I received a handsome New Year's present of £80 from
Sir Edward Malet, British embassador at Berlin;2 Lord
Ronald Gower3 and A. Gerstenberg,4 a wealthy Hebrew in the
British army.
The present you received, was not loc.00720.006_large.jpg from these gentlemen, but from the
readers of the Pall Mall Gazette, who were your friends,5
and Sir Edward Malet's and Mr. Gerstenberg's names were given to us, and by me to
you, in strict confidence. In mentioning the New Year's gift again, please describe
it as that of the paper and not of these individuals, whose initials only were
given.
With best wishes from loc.00720.007_large.jpgus
all, and with congratulations on the tardy pension,6 of
which the Cable brings us word.
I am,
Yours always sincerely
Henry Norman.
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loc.00720.009_large.jpg
Henry Norman
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Correspondent:
Sir Henry Norman
(1858–1939) was a writer and liberal politican from England. After moving
to the United States to study at Harvard, he wrote for the Pall Mall Gazette and the News
Chronicle.
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
U.S. America. | Mr. Walt Whitman | 325 Mickle
Street | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: Charing Cross W. C. | [illegible] | [illegible] | 87. There is at least one additional postmark
on the back of the envelope, but it is entirely illegible. [back]
- 2. Sir Edward Baldwin Malet
(1837–1908) was a diplomat from England, representing Britain in the
various German states (before 1871) as well as other countries around the
world. [back]
- 3. Lord Ronald Charles
Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1845–1916) was a liberal politican and writer
from Scotland. [back]
- 4. Arnold Gerstenberg, a graduate of
Trinity College, Cambridge, and a Lieutenant in Her Majesty's 20th Regiment of
Hussars; he committed suicide in October 1887. See The London
Gazette (December 9, 1887), 6895. [back]
- 5. For Whitman's response to
the gift, see the letter from Whitman to Henry Norman of January 3, 1887. [back]
- 6. Given the poet's precarious
financial situation, many of his supporters in the late 1880s lobbied for
granting Whitman a war pension for his services during the Civil War.
Representative Henry B. Lovering proposed a bill to the House in 1887 that would
have secured a $25/month pension for Whitman. Ultimately, the bill was
dropped, though, possibly because of an objection by Whitman. [back]