I received the book quite safely this morning,1 &
thank you very much for sending it, it was a very good thought of Edward
Carpenter2 to ask you to send it to me, & just like him
to know how pleased I should be to receive it from your own hands. I do indeed feel
proud to have it direct from the Author, & to have my name written in it by
himself. I should like to take this opportunity if you will allow me, of thanking
you for all the help I have [illegible]
& do get, loc_vm.02432_large.jpg
from your books. You do not know me, I have never spoken one word to you til to-day,
but I know you. You have spoken to me many words of help, & encouragement &
reproof, & direction, & of all kinds & I feel very grateful to you for
them, & for all the pleasure I have had in reading your books, & I shall always be
grateful to Mr Carpenter also, for introducing them to me. They contain messages for
all times & people, & for all sorts & conditions of men, but it seems to
me they are especially good & most glad tidings to common place,
ordinary plain people, with few gifts
loc_vm.02433_large.jpg & no graces
like myself. Also most truly a message of love & tenderness & sympathy to the despised & downtrodden of the earth. I so
often think of these words of yours, "Each belongs here or anywhere, just as much as
the well off just as much as you Each has his or her place in the procession." I
shall never forget how struck I was with the truth & beauty of verses 16 17 & 18 on page 105 in Leaves of
Grass the first time I read them, it so often came to me as I go about amongst the sick & poor, especially the poor in the Workhouse Hospital. That
for many people there seems no place at all no one wants them
loc_vm.02434_large.jpg everyone seems glad when they drop
out of the procession, & yet most of those men & women in the hospital, have
worked hard much too hard as their bent backs declare, all their lives. There is something
very very wrong somewhere & we shall have to answer for it in one way or
another, but I will not trouble you with more words of mine. Forgive me writing so
much. I did not intend when I began. I should like to send the money for the book
& the postage, but I do not know the price of the book. Will you kindly send me
the price on a post card. Again thanking you I am
Correspondent:
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