I would ask of you the favor to see, if convenient, whether the enclosed article The American War1 would be available for the Academy2—(or any where else if you think preferable.)
I would like pay for it—would be satisfied with 25 or $30.
I am getting along much the same. My new book wont be out yet, publicly, for a month.
Walt WhitmanI also send a little hitherto unpublished poem, The Man-of-War Bird3—which I can't sell here—I wonder if you could sell it for me, in London? It is not in my new book, & is entirely fresh.4
Correspondent:
William Michael Rossetti (1829–1915), brother
of Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti, was an English editor and a champion of
Whitman's work. In 1868, Rossetti edited Whitman's Poems,
selected from the 1867 Leaves of Grass. Whitman referred
to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871, letter to Frederick S. Ellis. Nonetheless,
the edition provided a major boost to Whitman's reputation, and Rossetti would
remain a staunch supporter for the rest of Whitman's life, drawing in
subscribers to the 1876 Leaves of Grass and fundraising
for Whitman in England. For more on Whitman's relationship with Rossetti, see
Sherwood Smith, "Rossetti, William Michael (1829–1915)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).