The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Alfred, Lord Tennyson to Walt Whitman, 14 May 1891
Date: May 14, 1891
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04274
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 notes: The annotation, "427 Chestnut | [illegible] 5/25," is in an unknown hand. The annotation, "May 26 1891," is in the hand of Horace Traubel.
Contributors to digital file: Andrew David King, Cristin Noonan, and Stephanie Blalock
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Farringford,
Freshwater,
Isle of Wight.1
My dear W. W.
All health & happiness to you on your birthday2 & henceforward
Yours ever
Tennyson
May 14th—91
Correspondent:
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) succeeded
William Wordsworth as poet laureate of Great Britain in 1850. The intense male
friendship described in In Memoriam, which Tennyson wrote
after the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, possibly influenced Whitman's
poetry. Tennyson began a correspondence with Whitman on July 12, 1871. Although Tennyson extended an invitation for Whitman
to visit England, Whitman never acted on the offer.
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman Esqr | Care of / Horace Traubel Esq | The Contemporary Club | Philadelphia | U S America. It is postmarked: SCHOOL GREEN | B | MY 14 | 91 | ISLE OF WIGHT; [illegible]A [illegible]; RECEIVED | May | 24 | 12 [illegible] | 12 | [illegible]; 2. [back]
2. Whitman's seventy-second (and last) birthday, May 31, 1891, was celebrated with friends at his home on Mickle Street. He described the celebration in a letter to Dr. John Johnston of Bolton, England, dated June 1, 1891: "We had our birth anniversary spree last evn'g — ab't 40 people, choice friends mostly—12 or so women—Tennyson sent a short and sweet letter over his own sign manual . . . lots of bits of speeches, with gems in them—we had a capital good supper." [back]