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Felix Volkhovsky to Walt Whitman, 26 September 1891

About This Item

  • Title: Felix Volkhovsky to Walt Whitman, 26 September 1891
  • Date: September 26, 1891; September 8, 1890
  • Creator(s): Felix Volkhovsky | Robert Spence Watson
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.04354
  • 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: Cristin Noonan Amanda J. Axley Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Volkhovsky, Felix and Robert Spence Watson. "Felix Volkhovsky to Walt Whitman, 26 September 1891." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 26 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.04354.xml (TEI)
 loc_vm.00750_large.jpg Henhurst Cross Beare Green N. Dorking England. Sept 26. 1891.1 Revered Comrade

You will be puzzled at the strangeness of the name subscribed to this letter, but you know well that democracy includes all nationalities and therefore though foreign, no name will be alien to you.

Since I have been a political refugee in England, after going through America, I have met with many young people of your race, whom I admire & esteem, & who  loc_vm.00751_large.jpg have told me the same thing—that Walt Whitman is the man who has done for them what no one else has done, has formed their character in accord with democratic ideals. And I understood this better when I became better acquainted with your writings. I also understood that the cause of justice & freedom in any country whatever could not be alien to you; and therefore I have decided to write you this letter & to send you the paper, intended to plead among English-speaking nations the cause of freedom in Russia2.  loc_vm.00752_large.jpg I hope that you will find a moment to look through it & to kindly send in some lines from your mighty pen to be inserted in it.

If you can aid this cause by introducing the subject among your friends & admirers & the general American public, you will do a good deed.

Yours fraternally Felix Volkhovsky  loc_vm.00753_large.jpg  loc_vm.00754_large.jpg  loc_vm.00755_large.jpg  loc_vm.00756_large.jpg  loc_vm.00757_large.jpg  loc_vm.00758_large.jpg  loc_vm.00759_large.jpg  loc_vm.00760_large.jpg  loc_vm.00761_large.jpg  loc_vm.00762_large.jpg  loc_vm.00763_large.jpg  loc_vm.00764_large.jpg  loc_vm.00765_large.jpg  loc_vm.00766_large.jpg  loc_vm.00767_large.jpg  loc_vm.00768_large.jpg  loc_vm.00769_large.jpg  loc_vm.00748_large.jpg  loc_vm.00749_large.jpg see notes Oct 6 1891

Correspondent:
Felix Volkhovsky (1846–1914) was a Russian ex-patriate and journalist. In the 1860s, Volkhovsky became involved with revolutionary political movements and was later imprisoned in a Siberian prison camp for his anti-Tsarist activity. After escaping Siberia, Volkhovsky settled in England where he began translating revolutionary literature and contributing to various newspapers and journals. He was editor of the political magazine, Free Russia, and author of a collection of fairy tales, A China Cup and other Stories for Children (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892). His papers are currently held at the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University. For more information on Volkhovsky, see Rebecca Beasley, Russomania: Russian Culture and the Creation of British Modernism, 1881–1922 (Oxford University Press, 2020), 46–63. Horace Traubel records Whitman receiving this letter in With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, October 6, 1891.

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | 328 Mickle Street | Camden | New Jersey | U. S. A. It is postmarked: DORKING | C | SP26 | 91; 257; NEW YORK | OCT | 5; 91; PAID | B | ALL; CAMDEN, N.J. | OCT 6 | 6 AM | 91 | REC'D. [back]
  • 2. Accompanying this letter, Felix Volkhovsky has enclosed the September 1890 edition of the Free Russia newspaper. [back]
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