The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: William Michael Rossetti to Walt Whitman, 17 May 1886
Date: May 17, 1886
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03613
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.
Editorial note: The annotation, "Letter from Rossetti May 17. '86 ￡29.18.3 fifth instalment," is in the hand of Walt Whitman.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman, Stefan Schöberlein, Ian Faith, and Stephanie Blalock
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5 ENDSLEIGH GARDENS.
N.W.
17 May /86.
Dear Whitman,
I beg now to enclose the papers in respect of the ￡29.18.3 wh. I notified the other day. Please excuse the lapse of a day or two beyond what I had then expected.1
Most truly yours,
WM Rossetti
Correspondent:
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).
Notes:
1. The enclosure is not extant. [back]