The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Will Carleton to Walt Whitman, 10 April 1891
Date: April 10, 1891
Whitman Archive ID: loc.08283
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: Will Cooper, Amanda J. Axley, Marie Ernster, and Stephanie Blalock
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420 Green Ave Brooklyn
Apr. 10/91
My Dear Mr. Whitman:
Allow me to introduce to you my friend of many years' standing—Mr. William Smith,1 of Yorkshire, England. Author of "Old Yorkshire," and other interesting works.
Yours Ever,
Will Carleton
Correspondent:
William McKendree Carleton
(1845–1912), an American poet, was born in Hudson, Michigan, and attended
Hillsdale College. He worked for newspapers early in his writing career and went
on to author several books of poetry, including Rifts in the
Cloud (1869) and Over the Hill to the Poorhouse
(1872).
Notes:
1. William Smith was the author of numerous historical and travel works. He edited the work Old Yorkshire, which spanned five volumes and included historical, archeological, and descriptive notes related to Yorkshire, England. The volumes were published in the early 1880s, with the fifth and final volume published in 1884. Smith was also the author of Rambles about Morley with Descriptive and Historic Sketches (1866) and A Yorkshireman's trip to the United States and Canada (1892). On May 9, 1891, approximately a month after Whitman received Carleton's letter of introduction, Smith traveled to Camden to visit Whitman. Whitman's health prevented him from having a long conversation with Smith, but Smith was able to speak with the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke at Whitman's house. Smith's account of the visit to Whitman was published in his A Yorkshireman's trip to the United States and Canada, and an excerpt of the book's sixth chapter includes Smith's impressions of Whitman and the poet's Mickle Street home. [back]