Leonard M. Brown to Walt Whitman, 29 January 1892
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4. Upper College St.
Nottingham
England.1 Jan. 29. 1892. Dear Mr Whitman
I was very sorry indeed to hear a little while ago
that you were so ill & should have written at once
to Mrs Davis2 to make inquiries
if I had not heard rumours of your having been moved
from your house southwards, so I wrote to Herbert
Gilchrist3 instead & as far as
I gather from a short postcard he has written in reply
you are still in Camden. However, not feeling quite sure,
I thought
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I had better write to you first and hear if you are at
home before sending you the yearly gift from myself
and friends—I earnestly hope to hear in reply
that you are pretty well again & out of pain.
I don't know whether you remember enough of me to recal that I had been a good invalided of late years through sleeplessness. I determined a year ago to try the manual labour cure & have been working since as a carpenter (an art which I learnt as a boy) & it has done me so much good that I hope to return soon to my proper work of teacher.
I have lately lent your poems
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to two new friends & have had the satisfaction of gaining
their gratitude thereby—One of them was very much in need
of the help to be found in them.
With much love & kind remembrances to yourself & Mrs Davis
Leonard Morgan Brown
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Correspondent:
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.
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | 328. Mickle Street | Camden, N. J. | U. S. America. It is postmarked: NOTTINGHAM | R5 | JA29 | 92; NOTTINGHAM | R5 | JA29 | 92; [illegible] | JA 29 | NOTTINGHAM; NEW YORK | FEB | 8; A | 92; PAID | E | ALL; CAMDEN, N. J. | FEB 18 | 4PM | 92 | REC'D. [back]
- 2. Mary Oakes Davis (1837 or 1838–1908) was Whitman's housekeeper. For more, see Carol J. Singley, "Davis, Mary Oakes (1837 or 1838–1908)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. 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]