The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: William F. Rean to Walt Whitman, 31 December 1890
Date: December 31, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03576
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: Andrew David King, Brandon James O'Neil, and Stephanie Blalock
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Egg Buckland
Crown Hill, R.S.O.,
Plymouth, Devon.
England,
New Year's Eve,
1890.
Dr. Brother. & Sir.
Upon the threshold of another year I stand without the gate, knocking; pray let me in, for I, a pilgrim, Heavenward bound, a Counsellor need. Young, without friends, such as 'I' love, daily do toil at the great task, that task which Thou didst learn—the Case and type and for me—what emblems of this cruel world! Yet stay, I come—in spirit come—to tell thee that I love thee, having learn'd thy life. God grant thee many a year and passing hence may Thou and I, joined soul and soul, know Heaven and God and Love and Peace which now I know dwelt never here to stay.
Believe me,
Yours affectionately,
W. F. Rean.
Correspondent:
William Frederick Smith
Kingcombe Rean (1862–1932) was an English Socialist, newspaperman, and
poet. He was born in Plymouth, England, one of four children to John Rean
(1838–1886) and Mary Ann Kingcombe (1839–1919). The 1881 English
census indicates that Rean was already working as a printer at age eighteen, and
subsequent censuses show that he remained a typographer and compositor
throughout his life. During his time as an editor at papers including the West Ham Citizen and the Western
Morning News, he was active in socialist circles and wrote on various
social causes. After his death, his poems that originally appeared in newspapers
were collected in Selections from the Poems of W. F. K.
Rean (London : Twentieth Century Press, 1932).