Farringford, Freshwater, Isle of Wight,1
June 22, 1889.
My father2 has been yachting in the Sunbeam. He thanks you for
your letter:3 he is not up to writing.
Your banquet and speech4 seem to have been a great
success. All congratulations.
Correspondent:
Hallam Tennyson
(1852–1928) was the eldest son of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Hallam
was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He served as
the personal secretary and biographer of his father, and he was made the
Governor of South Australia in 1899. Four years later, he began serving as the
second Governor-General of Australia, a position he held until 1904. He spent
the last years of his life in Farringford, serving as the deputy Governor of the
Isle of Wight from 1913.
Notes
- 1. Tennyson sent this letter to
Whitman through Herbert H. Gilchrist on behalf of his father, Alfred Lord
Tennyson. [back]
- 2. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) succeeded
William Wordsworth as poet laureate of Great Britain in 1850. The intense male
friendship described in In Memoriam, which Tennyson wrote
after the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, possibly influenced Whitman's
poetry. Whitman wrote to Tennyson in 1871 or late 1870, probably shortly after the
visit of Cyril Flower in December, 1870, but the letter is not extant (see Thomas Donaldson,
Walt Whitman the Man [New York: F. P.
Harper, 1896], 223). Tennyson's first letter to Whitman is dated July
12, 1871. Although Tennyson extended an invitation for Whitman
to visit England, Whitman never acted on the offer. [back]
- 3. It is uncertain which letter is
being referred to here. [back]
- 4. For Whitman's seventieth
birthday, Horace Traubel and a large committee planned a local celebration for
the poet in Morgan's Hall in Camden, New Jersey. The committee included Henry
(Harry) L. Bonsall, Geoffrey Buckwalter, and Thomas B. Harned. See Horace
Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, May 7, 1889. The day was celebrated with a testimonial
dinner. Numerous authors and friends of the poet prepared and delivered
addresses to mark the occasion. Whitman, who did not feel well at the time,
arrived after the dinner to listen to the remarks and give a speech. The notes
and addresses, as well as Whitman's speech, were collected and edited by Horace
Traubel. The volume was titled Camden's Compliment to Walt
Whitman, and it included a photo of Sidney Morse's 1887 clay bust of
Whitman as the frontispiece. The book was published in 1889 by Philadelphia
publisher David McKay. [back]