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Walt Whitman to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 9 August 1878

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 9 August 1878
  • Date: August 9, 1878
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: tex.00068
  • Source: T. E. Hanley Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.

    Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
  • Contributors to digital file: Alicia Bones Grace Thomas Anthony Dreesen Kevin McMullen Nicole Gray
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 9 August 1878." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 26 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: tex.00068.xml (TEI)
 tex_ej.00274_large.jpg Aug 9 '781 My dear Tennyson

The last letter I sent you was Sept 14 '76,2 (nearly two years ago) to which I have received no response. I also sent my Two Vols: new edition—having rec'd​ your subscription of 5£ (with an intimation from Robert Buchanan that no books were expected in return—but I preferr'd to send them)3—

I am still in the land of the living—much better & robuster the last two years, & especially the last six months, (though a partial paralytic yet)—I find the experiences of invalidism & the loosing of corporeal ties not without their advantages, at last, if one reserve enough physique to as it were confront the invalidism  tex_ej.00275_large.jpg  tex_ej.00276_large.jpg But all this summer I have been & am well enough to be out on the water or down in the fields & woods of the country more than half the time and am quite hefty (as we say here) and sunburnt.

 tex_ej.00277_large.jpg  tex_ej.00278_large.jpg

Best regards & love to you, dear friend. Write me first leisure & opportunity. Havn't you a son, lately married4 I have heard about?—Pray tell me something about him—& the respected lady, your wife, whom you mention'd in your last as prostrated with illness—& yourself most of all

Walt Whitman  tex_ej.00279_large.jpg Sent to Tennyson | Aug 9 '78 | Aldworth | Blackdown | Haslemere | (or elsewhere) | England

Notes

  • 1. This is a draft letter, and includes several deletions and additions by Whitman. Two letters to Whitman, one from Richard Maurice Bucke (undated), and one from Benjamin Gurney (August 3, 1878) are on the versos. [back]
  • 2. This letter is apparently lost. Whitman did not keep a draft. [back]
  • 3. See the letter from Whitman to Robert Buchanan of May 16, 1876. [back]
  • 4. See the letter from Alfred, Lord Tennyson to Whitman of August 24, 1878. [back]
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