The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Edmund J. Baillie to Walt Whitman, 17 September 1890
Date: September 17, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: loc.08083
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: Andrew David King, Cristin Noonan, Breanna Himschoot, Brandon James O'Neil, and Stephanie Blalock
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Woodbine
Upton Park
Chester.
England.1
"The Time is short."
17th Sept. '90
Dear Walt Whitman.
May I send a Disciple's greeting & a word of loving regard expressive of hope that you are as well as one may hope to be in the the "November"-tide of Life.
I am to read a paper before our Literary Society at the close of the year & I am anxious to prepare myself properly. The subject is yourself as a Leader of the thought & manly character of the age—a former & Re-former of the times. I read somewhere that you had a few copies of the original Edn of "Leaves" which cd be got from you alone. Is it so? If I am rightly informed wd you kindly mail me a single line giving me prices & any particulars.
With earnest & sincere tender good wishes
Faithfully Yours
Edmund J. Baillie
Correspondent:
Edmund John Baillie
(1851–1897) was a Welsh horticulturalist specializing in fruit trees and a
Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. In 1882, he published John Ruskin: Aspects of his Thought and Teachings (London: John
Pearce). Baillie served as vice president of the Vegetarian Society and
president of the John Ruskin Society in Liverpool. For more information, see
"Mr. E. J. Baillie," The Manchester Guardian (October 19,
1897), 12.
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | Camden | New Jersey | U. S. A. It is postmarked: CHESTER | M | SP 17 | 90; CHESTER | M | SP 17 | 90; NEW YORK | SEP | 24; H | 90; [PAID] | H | ALL; CAMDEN, N.J. | [SEP] | [illegible] | 6AM | 1890 | REC'D. [back]