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Walt Whitman to Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton, 20 June 1885

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton, 20 June 1885
  • Date: June 20, 1885
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.02332
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.

    Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
  • Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schöberlein Kyle Barton
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton, 20 June 1885." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 09 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.02332.xml (TEI)
 loc.02332.001_large.jpg 328 Mickle street Camden New Jersey U S A1 June 20 1885 Dear old friend

If convenience helps I want to present two American girls, sisters, Mary Whitall and Alys Smith, of Quaker stock[,] special personal friends of mine—to you—They are traveling in Europe with their parents—Mary can tell you all about my perplexing self to latest dates2—

Walt Whitman

To Lord Houghton

 loc.02332.002_large.jpg  loc.02332.003_large.jpg  loc.02332.004_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Richard Monckton Milnes (1809–1885), Lord Houghton, was an intimate of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) and William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863), as well as a poet. He was a collector of famous people; in Dictionary of National Biography he is characterized as "eminently a dilettante." Houghton wrote to Joaquin Miller on September 1, 1875, from Chicago: "Please give my best regards to Mr Whitman." On September 5, 1875, Miller informed Whitman that he was trying to arrange a meeting with Lord Houghton. Houghton himself wrote to Whitman on September 27, 1875, and proposed a visit at the end of October or early in November, and on November 3, 1875, he asked whether November 6 would be convenient. See Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden (1906–1996), Thursday, June 21, 1888, 364, and Wednesday, September 12th, 1888, 310; In Re Walt Whitman (1893), ed. Horace L. Traubel, Richard Maurice Bucke, and Thomas B. Harned, 36; and Harold Blodgett, Walt Whitman in England (1934), 141–143.

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: "Lord Houghton." [back]
  • 2. The Smiths sailed on June 24 and arrived in England on July 3. When Mary called on June 20 (Whitman's Commonplace Book), Whitman undoubtedly gave her this letter of introduction. [back]
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