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Hallam Tennyson to Walt Whitman, 26 January 1892

About This Item

  • Title: Hallam Tennyson to Walt Whitman, 26 January 1892
  • Date: January 26, 1892
  • Creator(s): Hallam Tennyson
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.05876
  • 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 Zainab Saleh Amanda J. Axley Marie Ernster Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Tennyson, Hallam. "Hallam Tennyson to Walt Whitman, 26 January 1892." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 25 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.05876.xml (TEI)
 loc_no.00124_large.jpg Farringford, Freshwater, Isle of Wight. Jan 26/92 For Mr Walt Whitman

My father1 thanks you cordially for yr new edition of 'Leaves of Grass'—He is not allowed by his doctors to write more than is absolutely necessary—We are very sorry to hear that you have been unwell but hope that—as the spring advances—your health  loc_no.00126_large.jpg  loc_no.00128_large.jpg  loc_no.00129_large.jpg  loc_no.00127_large.jpg will improve.

With my greetings for the New Year.

Yr faithfully Hallam Tennyson  loc_no.00125_large.jpg To Walt Whitman  loc_zs.00394.jpg  loc_zs.00395.jpg

Correspondent:
Hallam Tennyson (1852–1928) was the eldest son of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Hallam was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He served as the personal secretary and biographer of his father, and he was made the Governor of South Australia in 1899. Four years later, he began serving as the second Governor-General of Australia, a position he held until 1904. He spent the last years of his life in Farringford, serving as the deputy Governor of the Isle of Wight from 1913.

Notes

  • 1. 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. Whitman wrote to Tennyson in 1871 or late 1870, probably shortly after the visit of Cyril Flower in December, 1870, but the letter is not extant (see Thomas Donaldson, Walt Whitman the Man [New York: F. P. Harper, 1896], 223). Tennyson's first letter to Whitman is dated July 12, 1871. Although Tennyson extended an invitation for Whitman to visit England, Whitman never acted on the offer. [back]
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