The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: R. B. Anderson to Walt Whitman, 17 September 1877
Date: September 17, 1877
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05707
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: Natalie O'Neal and Nicole Gray
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University of Wisconsin Library,
Madison, Wis.
Sept. 17, 1877
Walt Whitman Esq.,
Dear Sir:
I have two reasons for sending you this note. In the first place I was in Norway in 1872 and again in 1873. Both times I visited Björnstjerne Björnson, the celebrated Norse poet, novelist, dramatist, politician, and orator. He was loud in his praises of Walt Whitman and talked of you frequently. He told me to remember him to you, if I ever found an opportunity.
In the next place I am one of the few in the West, I suppose I am the only one in this city, who has read all your works. I admire them, I love them. I think there is no other American poet that has ever soared so high as you do at times, and hence no one else in this country has been able to present so comprehensive a view of human life. I have a great desire to see you and for this reason I take the liberty of requesting you to send me a photograph of yourself if possible with your autograph on the back of it.
I shall deliver a course of lectures in the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, next January and if it is possible I should like the privilege of calling upon you at your home.
Yours Faithfully
R. B. Anderson