loc.02186.001_large.jpg
12 Well Road
Hampstead.
September 5th 1885.
Dear Walt
Your letter of August 1st to hand, it was printed in the Athenaeum of Aug 22nd and
in Daily News of 24th.1 A week ago William Rossetti2 sent off to you £21.2.0 and £1. sent by
Aldrich;3 this latter is in the form of an American Bank
draft, wh Aldrich said should be
forwarded to you in that form; I do not know in what form Rossetti has mailed you
the £21.2.0. This then is an instalment of the money accruing from the scheme.
We have got John Fraser4 to print a circular reprinting
Athenaeum paragraph with a list of names and your letter in facsimile, expect copies Monday morning. Will send
a copy to you.
loc.02186.004_large.jpg
loc.02186.002_large.jpg
William Rossetti and your friends generally were very pleased and glad to get your
letter (William Rossetti remarking that it was a very nice letter.) I am very glad
dear Walt that you have one good stout friendly Jersey woman in Mary Davis.5
I trust that you will soon resume your rides over to Philadelphia on the boat. I
have just returned from the country, hence a little delay in getting off this note.
With best love
Herbert H Gilchrist.
P.S. William Rossetti sent you the £21.2.0. through the
post office.
loc.02186.003_large.jpg
Correspondent:
Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist
(1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter
and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro,
"Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. See Whitman's letter of August 1, 1885. Herbert Gilchrist and William
Michael Rossetti had been collecting funds in England for the financial support
of Whitman. A paragraph in the Athenaeum of July
11, 1885, read: "A subscription list is being formed in England with a view to
presenting a free-will offering to the American poet Walt Whitman. The poet is
in his sixty-seventh year, and has since his enforced retirement some years ago
from official work in Washington, owing to an attack of paralysis, maintained
himself precariously by the sale of his works in poetry and prose, and by
occasional contributions to magazines." [back]
- 2. 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]
- 3. Charles Aldrich
(1828–1908) was an ornithologist, a member of the Iowa House of
Representatives, an infantry captain in the Civil War, and founder of the Iowa
Historical Department. He was also an avid autograph collector, especially of
Whitman's. He was so eager that the poet termed him "a very hungry man . . .
never satisfied—is always crying for more and more" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, August 20, 1889). Aldrich visited Whitman at his Camden home
numerous times, and he served as a conduit between the poet and William Michael
Rossetti in England, who edited the first British edition of Whitman's work. For
more information, see Ed Folsom, "The Mystical Ornithologist and the Iowa
Tufthunter: Two Unpublished Whitman Letters and Some Identifications," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 1 (1983),
18–29. [back]
- 4. John Fraser was the editor
of Cope's Tobacco Plant. [back]
- 5. Mary Oakes Davis (1837 or
1838–1908) was Whitman's housekeeper. For more, see Carol J. Singley,
"Davis, Mary Oakes (1837 or 1838–1908)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]