The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Ernest Rhys, 3 June 1887
Date: June 3, 1887
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00590
Source: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 6:41. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Ryan Furlong, Stefan Schöberlein, Caterina Bernardini, and Stephanie Blalock
Camden New Jersey U S America1
June 3 '87
No slips of the printed Preface or "additional note" have arrived yet2—I would like three or four of each of them—fine weather this forenoon, as I write, sunny & "growing"—rec'd last even'g a kind complimentary greeting by cable from Henry Irving3—I remain much as usual—bodily disabled, however, & a prisoner to the house—I expect to see Herbert Gilchrist4 to-day (from N[ew] York)—send me a copy of Spec: Days soon as it is out—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Ernest Percival Rhys
(1859–1946) was a British author and editor; he founded the Everyman's
Library series of inexpensive reprintings of popular works. He included a volume
of Whitman's poems in the Canterbury Poets series and two volumes of Whitman's
prose in the Camelot series for Walter Scott publishers. For more information
about Rhys, see Joel Myerson, "Rhys, Ernest Percival (1859–1946)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed: Ernest Rhys | Care Walter Scott Publishing Co: | 24 Warwick Lane Paternoster | row | London England. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Jun 3 | 9 PM | 87; London | A | (?) 87 | (?). [back]
2. See See Whitman's letters to Rhys of March 8, 1887, and March 15, 1887. [back]
3. Henry Irving, the actor, and others congratulated Walt Whitman on his 68th birthday on May 31. [back]
4. 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]