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Camden April 12 '87.
Dear friend
I send you Herbert's1 last letter—he expects to come over in May—He has sent me his book2 ab't
Mrs. G3—It is very interesting—Shall I bring or send it down for you to read, or have you one?—Harry4 left here ab't an
hour ago—he went up to the Hospital to-day, & the throat was operated on again—but he feels pretty well &
in good spirits—I am sorry to hear George5 and Ed6 are not well—I hope they
will be over the worst of it, & indeed all right by this time—I am
going to New York to-morrowevn'g, to return Friday if I live through it all. I may drive down next
Sunday if it is pleasant—
Walt Whitman
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C/. Leonard M. Brown.7
THE GLEBE HOUSE.
HUNSTANTON.S.C.
NORFOLK.
31st March 1887.
My Dear Walt,
As you see by my address I am staying with a great friend of yours. You may see him
this summer for he is going to America at the end of April,—going out as a
schoolmaster to settle somewhere up the Hudson. He is an uncommonly good fellow, quiet
earnest serious soul and very practical, full of solid worth,
whose knowledge and attainments are sure to be valued in America. His father is a
clergyman, loc_jc.00566_large.jpg and
this son of his reads Leaves of Grass silently & unobserved by the rest of his orthodox
family.
I posted a copy of my book to you about a week ago: I hope that you will read it and
tell me how you like it.
Andrew Lang8 wrote a leader in the Daily News about it and fine
things have been said in the London, and Scotch Press
particularly. As yet, I have not taken
my passage, but I hope to come early in May, and to spend a nice slice of my time
near you in Camden. I consider that your poems have gained ground here perceptibly
within the last 2 years. Leonard Brown sends his love &
with love from
Herbert H. Gilchrist.
Correspondent:
Susan M. Lamb Stafford
(1833–1910) was the mother of Harry Stafford (1858–1918), who, in
1876, became a close friend of Whitman while working at the printing office of
the Camden New Republic. Whitman regularly visited the
Staffords at their family farm near Kirkwood, New Jersey. Whitman enjoyed the
atmosphere and tranquility that the farm provided and would often stay for weeks
at a time (see David G. Miller, "Stafford, George and Susan M.," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings [New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998], 685).
Notes
- 1. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist
(1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter
and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro,
"Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 2. Whitman noted the receipt of
Herbert's book, Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings, on
April 5 (Whitman's Commonplace Book [Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the
Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.]). [back]
- 3. Anne Burrows Gilchrist
(1828–1885) was the author of one of the first significant pieces of
criticism on Leaves of Grass, titled "A Woman's Estimate
of Walt Whitman (From Late Letters by an English Lady to W. M. Rossetti)," The Radical 7 (May 1870), 345–59. Gilchrist's long
correspondence with Whitman indicates that she had fallen in love with the poet
after reading his work; when the pair met in 1876 when she moved to
Philadelphia, Whitman never fully returned her affection, although their
friendship deepened after that meeting. For more information on their
relationship, see Marion Walker Alcaro, "Gilchrist, Anne Burrows (1828–1885)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 4. Whitman met the 18-year-old Harry Lamb Stafford (b.
1858) in 1876, beginning a relationship which was almost entirely overlooked by
early Whitman scholarship, in part because Stafford's name appears nowhere in
the first six volumes of Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in
Camden—though it does appear frequently in the last three
volumes, which were published only in the 1990s. Whitman occasionally referred
to Stafford as "My (adopted) son" (as in a December 13,
1876, letter to John H. Johnston), but the relationship between the
two also had a romantic, erotic charge to it. For further discussion of
Stafford, see Arnie Kantrowitz, "Stafford, Harry L. (b.1858)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. George Stafford (1827–1892)
was Susan's husband and Harry's father. [back]
- 6. Edwin Stafford (1856–1906) was Harry
Stafford's brother. [back]
- 7. Leonard M. Brown (c.
1857–1928), a young English schoolteacher and friend of Herbert Gilchrist,
came to America in May, 1887. On March 31, 1887,
Gilchrist wrote to Whitman: "he is an uncommonly good fellow, quiet earnet
serious soul and very practical, full of solid worth, whose knowledge and
attainments are sure to be valued in America. His father is a clergyman, and
this son of his reads Leaves of Grass silently & unobserved by the sect of
his orthodox family." An entry in Whitman's Commonplace Book on August 29 reads:
"Leonard Morgan Brown goes back to Croton-on-Hudson—has been here ab't a
week" (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman,
1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). See also Whitman's
letter to Brown of November 19, 1887; his letter
to Herbert Gilchrist of December 12, 1886, note 2;
and his letter to Brown of February 7,
1890. [back]
- 8. Andrew Lang (1844–1912) was a
Scottish poet, novelist, and critic, well-known for his fairy-tale
collections. [back]