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Thomas W. H. Rolleston to Walt Whitman, 10 November 1889

About This Item

  • Title: Thomas W. H. Rolleston to Walt Whitman, 10 November 1889
  • Date: November 10, 1889
  • Creator(s): Thomas W. H. Rolleston
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.07632
  • 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: Zainab Saleh Brandon James O'Neil Andrew David King Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Rolleston, Thomas W. H.. "Thomas W. H. Rolleston to Walt Whitman, 10 November 1889." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 26 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.07632.xml (TEI)
 loc_zs.00543.jpg Nov. 10. 13 Emser Strasse Wiesbaden Germany. My dear Walt

The enclosed will interest you. From all accounts the reception of book1 here is very satisfactory.

I hope your 71st year finds you cheerful——I can hardly hope well, for I have heard of late illnesses with great grief. We are here for my wifes2 health, which I am glad to say is much improved.

Ever yours T. W. Rolleston.

Correspondent:
Thomas William Hazen Rolleston (1857–1920) was an Irish poet and journalist. After attending college in Dublin, he moved to Germany for a period of time. He wrote to Whitman frequently, beginning in 1880, and later produced with Karl Knortz the first book-length translation of Whitman's poetry into German. In 1889, the collection Grashalme: Gedichte [Leaves of Grass: Poems] was published by Verlags-Magazin in Zurich, Switzerland. See Walter Grünzweig, Constructing the German Walt Whitman (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1995). For more information on Rolleston, see Walter Grünzweig, "Rolleston, Thomas William Hazen (1857–1920)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).

Notes

  • 1. Rolleston is referring to the German translation of Leaves of Grass (Grashalme: Gedichte) that he and his co-translator Karl Knortz had just published. [back]
  • 2. Rolleston married Edith Caroline de Burgh (1859?–1896) in Dublin, Ireland, in 1879. [back]
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