"Good Bye my Fancy"1 came announcing in your proper hand that it was from Walt Whitman.
I wish I could tell that same Walt Whitman somewhat of the debt I owe him. I have no apt words in which to speak of "Leaves of Grass." Other loc.02127.002_large.jpg books, great poems or great theses whether or not in form dramatic are woven by the combination and re-arrangement of such characters and actions, such threads of thought and notions of life as prevailed at or before the authors time or were perceived by him ahead of his time.
"Leaves of Grass" loc.02127.003_large.jpg deals in the contrary with neither accepted results nor personal concepts as finalities but refers every thing back to the raw material out of which all truth about humanity must come and to which all must go for true thought or right action.
To me it proclaims primitive truths and declares the paramount necessity of Truth itself. Its lesson loc.02127.004_large.jpg to the heart of man is Love the truth; to his brain it says Seek the truth. An older seer said "Man know thyself"2—your higher message to man is "Know the truth about thyself and love the Truth for itself"
I have written enough to tell you that I cannot explain to you my debt so my creditor you must remain
Sincerely Yours C G GarrisonCorrespondent:
Charles Grant Garrison
(1849–1924) attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and
began his career in the field of medicine. He later pursued a legal career and
went on to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey for thirty
years ("Judge C. G. Garrison dies," The Morning Call
[April 23, 1924], 1).