Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Letters
  3. Correspondence
  4. loc.03632

Edith Rhys to Walt Whitman, [June 1887]

About This Item

  • Title: Edith Rhys to Walt Whitman, [June 1887]
  • Date: [June 1887]
  • Creator(s): Edith Rhys
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.03632
  • 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: Marie Ernster Amanda J. Axley Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Rhys, Edith. "Edith Rhys to Walt Whitman, [June 1887]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 03 May 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.03632.xml (TEI)
 loc.03632.001_large.jpg Simpson, Spence & Young 88 Monte Rosa Arrow line wharf 23rd Street New York— N.R— Dear Sir,

My brother Ernest Rhys1 has given me a letter of introduction to you.2 Our visit to America is a very short one. We leave early tomorrow for a little tour including Niagara & will not be home to our steamer till Saturday night.

The Captain says we may have to leave on Tuesday or Wednesday. So we have only Monday on which we can avail ourselves of the privilege of seeing you—if  loc.03632.002_large.jpg therefore you can be troubled with a visit from two girls who would dearly like to see you, we will come on that day—Ernest said Mr Gilchrist3 would be at Camden, but he gave us no address.

Hoping we shall not return to England disappointed at not seeing you

Believe me Sincerely yours Edith Rhys—

Correspondent:
Edith Rhys, who was involved in music and in British theatre as an actor and director (she directed and acted in the production of one of Ernest Rhys's plays, The Masque of the Grail, in 1908 at the Court Theatre), was Ernest Rhys's sister. She visited Whitman in June of 1887; Whitman briefly describes the visit in his letter to Ernest Rhys of June 26, 1887. She began study at the London Academy of Music the following year. See also Rhys's letters to Whitman of March 2, 1889, and of January 3, 1888.

Notes

  • 1. Ernest Percival Rhys (1859–1946) was a British author and editor; he founded the Everyman's Library series of inexpensive reprintings of popular works. He included a volume of Whitman's poems in the Canterbury Poets series and two volumes of Whitman's prose in the Camelot series for Walter Scott publishers. For more information about Rhys, see Joel Myerson, "Rhys, Ernest Percival (1859–1946)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 2. This letter has not been located. [back]
  • 3. 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). [back]
Back to top