Walt Whitman to Roden Noel, 3 May 1886

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Roden Noel, 3 May 1886
Date: May 3, 1886
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02906
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.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schöberlein Alex Kinnaman Ian Faith Kyle Barton
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Roden Noel, 3 May 1886." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 11 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.02906.xml (TEI)

loc.02906.002.jpg 328 Mickle Street1 Camden New Jersey US America May 3, '86—

Yours of April 22 just rec'd —The book has never reached me—I have nothing to do with Houghton, Mifflin & Co:—Of course should be glad to get & read the book, or any of your writings—I am living here well cared for, but paralyzed in body, & quite unable to walk around.—Glad to hear from you, & would send you my writings, gladly.

Walt Whitman

loc.02906.001.jpg

Correspondent:
Roden Noel (1834–1894) was an English poet. Noel came from an aristocratic English family, and in his youth developed socialist sympathies. He was a close friend of the poet and influential critic Robert Buchanan, and it may have been through Buchanan that Noel first encountered Leaves of Grass in 1871 (the same year that he first wrote to Whitman). In 1871, Noel published an essay entitled "A Study of Walt Whitman" in The Dark Blue (Harold Blodgett, Walt Whitman in England [Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1934], 147–149).

Notes

1. This postal card is addressed: Roden Noel | 57 Anesley Park | London s e | England. It is postmarked: CAMDEN | MAY | [illegible] | 3 PM | 1886 | N.J. [back]