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Walt Whitman to Ernest Rhys, 11 May 1890

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Ernest Rhys, 11 May 1890
  • Date: May 11, 1890
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00741
  • 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), 50–51. 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 Alex Ashland Paige Wilkinson Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Ernest Rhys, 11 May 1890." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 03 May 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: nyp.00741.xml (TEI)
Camden New Jersey, US America1 May 11 '90

Still hold the fort (sort o' yet)—have had another bad attack of the grip, but am easier to-day. Send you some slips enclosed wh' I am willing (& even hopeful) sh'd be pub'd in any London or other British papers mn'g of May 24th—Have also sent some slips to R Pearsall Smith2 & you might see him if convenient—y'r letter rec'd—always thanks—Dr Bucke3 will be here next week—Herbert Gilchrist4 has gone to fine summer quarters—His address is Centreport Suffolk Co: New York—I enclose the "Twilight Song"5 one of my last,—Kennedy6 remains as proof reader for Boston Transcript—I am writing this in my den in Mickle St. seated in the strong old chair with wolf-skin on back (as it is rather chilly weather & I have wood fire)—

Best wishes & love 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 | Publisher Warwick Lane | Paternoster Row | London | England. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | MAY 11 | 5 PM | 90; Philadelphia, P.A. | MAY 11 | 9 PM | [illegible] | London, E.C. | 7 | MY 23 | 90 | [illegible] [back]
  • 2. Robert Pearsall Smith (1827–1898) was a Quaker who became an evangelical minister associated with the "Holiness movement." He was also a writer and businessman. Whitman often stayed at his Philadelphia home, where the poet became friendly with the Smith children—Mary, Logan, and Alys. For more information about Smith, see Christina Davey, "Smith, Robert Pearsall (1827–1898)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 3. Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a Canadian physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany. Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [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]
  • 5. Enclosed in this letter were printed slips of Whitman's poems "A Twilight Song" and "For Queen Victoria's Birthday." The latter was published in the following English journals: Pall Mall Gazette on May 24, The Observer (London), on May 25, The Star on May 27, and The Home News on May 30. On May 25, 1890, Rhys wrote to Harry Buxton Forman about the slips: "Not being a Royalist, I did not much relish having to make a midnight pilgrimage from here to Fleet St. on Friday night with the slips in question (for they only reached me that evening); but I felt compelled to honour the old fellow's wish. I enclose one of the slips, as it has its own autograph, & may fit in to your collection of odds & ends" (The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library). [back]
  • 6. William Sloane Kennedy (1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman, in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was "too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February 1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
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