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Walt Whitman to Herbert Gilchrist, 21 November [1876]

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Herbert Gilchrist, 21 November [1876]
  • Date: November 21, 1876
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: upa.00062
  • Source: Walt Whitman Collection, 1842–1957, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. 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: Alex Kinnaman Jonathan Y. Cheng Elizabeth Lorang Zachary King Eric Conrad Nicole Gray
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Herbert Gilchrist, 21 November [1876]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 19 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: upa.00062.xml (TEI)
 upa.00062.001_large.jpg 431 Stevens street Camden Nov 21 My dear Herbert

I had a safe little jaunt home yesterday afternoon1—What a long-drawn-out storm—cloudy yet this morning.

Upon talking more fully with my sister about the colored woman Rosy, I am convinced she would not do—so I think we will give up any further thought of her as a help to you—

J T Nettleship's address is 233 Stanhope street, Regents' Park N W—The criticism in the Examiner was written by J H McCarthy.2 I am feeling pretty well (for me) this morning—Affectionate regards to all—

Walt Whitman  upa.00062.002_large.jpg

Correspondent:
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).

Notes

  • 1. A reference to his return from a visit to the Gilchrists in Philadelphia from November 18 to 20 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
  • 2. According to his Commonplace Book, Whitman sent Two Rivulets on September 7 to Justin H. McCarthy, Jr. (1860–1936). On September 23, McCarthy thanked him for the volume, and recalled that his father, the novelist, had met the poet in 1870; see also Gay Wilson Allen, The Solitary Singer (New York: Macmillan, 1955), 418–419, and Justin McCarthy, Reminiscences (London: Chatto & Windus, 1899), 1:258–261. McCarthy's unsigned review of Two Rivulets, "Songs Overseas," appeared in The Examiner on October 21. After praising Whitman's description of Lincoln's death, McCarthy observed: "Could he apply this power to the whole as to this chapter, Walt Whitman might abandon all other titles for that of America's first historian." [back]
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