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Lavinia F. Whitman to Walt Whitman, 3 November 1891

About This Item

  • Title: Lavinia F. Whitman to Walt Whitman, 3 November 1891
  • Date: November 3, 1891
  • Creator(s): Lavinia F. Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.04860
  • 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: Lauren Claeys Amanda J. Axley Alex Ashland Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Lavinia F.. "Lavinia F. Whitman to Walt Whitman, 3 November 1891." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 11 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.04860.xml (TEI)
 loc_vm.01296.jpg Walt Whitman Esq— 2337 N. 18th St, Phila Nov 3rd— My dear, dear friend

I am so charmed with the account, in to days Press, of Sir Edwin Arnolds1 interview with you, that I must obey the impulse to write about it, & to congratulate you, upon having, & so justly deserving, the high esteem of such news, & this after your early many conflicts—Indeed it is  loc_vm.01297.jpg fascinating to me to study such a life as yours has been—The New York Herald & Recorder of Sunday last contain as I suppose you know, long articles about your life full of disappointments & mean treatment, now culminating in such honors & appreciation, as few of our authors or poets have reached—

Oh, what exquisite happiness it would have given me to be present yesterday & witnessed your interview—to see such a gush of affection  loc_vm.01298.jpg between two congenial, noble men—

I myself feel honored to have known you & proudly regard you, as one of my childrens names & a member of the Whitman family, whom my noble, grand, old father-in-law would have dearly loved—I wish you could have known each other—

I am going to make another attempt very soon to see you—May you be "good for fifteen years more"2

With great respect & affection Lavinia F Whitman  loc_vm.01299.jpg Lavinia Whitman

Correspondent:
Lavinia Fanning Watson Whitman (1818–1900) was the eldest daughter of John Fanning Watson—author of Annals of Philadelphia (1830) and a well known historian of Philadelphia and New York City—and his wife Phebe Barron Crowell. In 1846, Lavinia became the first woman to sponsor a United States Navy ship when she christened the sloop-of-war, the USS Germantown, in Philadelphia. She married Harrison Gray Otis Whitman, a son of Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ezekial Whitman.

Notes

  • 1. Sir Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) was a writer and editor best known for his The Light of Asia and over 6,000 leading articles for the Daily Telegraph (Mary Ellis Gibson, ed., "Sir Edwin Arnold," Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 1780–1913 [Athens: Ohio University Press, 2011], 259–260). He visited Whitman in 1889 and in 1891. For an account of Arnold's 1889 visit, see Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Thursday, September 12, 1889 and Saturday, September 14, 1889: "My main objection to him, if objection at all, would be, that he is too eulogistic—too flattering." Arnold published his own version of the interview in Seas and Lands (1891). There are at least two additional accounts of this visit; "Arnold and Whitman" was published anonymously in The Times (Philadelphia, PA) on September 15, 1889, and a different article, also titled "Arnold and Whitman" was published anonymously in The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, LA) on September 26, 1889. He also paid a surprise visit to Whitman in Camden on November 2, 1891. An account of the visit was published in the Philadelphia Press with the title "A Poet's Greetings to a Poet." See Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, November 3, 1891 for more information. In his commentary, Traubel described the account of Whitman's visit with Arnold as "almost idiotic—certainly foolish." See also The Springfield Republican article published on November 7, 1891. [back]
  • 2. Lavinia Whitman is quoting Sir Edwin Arnold's comment that he made on his 1891 visit to Whitman; see Horace Traubel's account in With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, November 3, 1891. [back]
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