Walt Whitman to Joseph B. Gilder, 18 March [1887]

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Joseph B. Gilder, 18 March [1887]
Date: March 18, 1887
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00428
Source: Papers of Walt Whitman (MSS 3829), Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. 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 Ashland Stefan Schöberlein Kevin McMullen Marie Ernster Stephanie Blalock Amanda J. Axley
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Joseph B. Gilder, 18 March [1887]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 09 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: uva.00428.xml (TEI)

uva_ej.00124_large.jpg Camden March 18

Yes—I have rec'd such a letter from T1—& do not object to your itemizing it—though it must be done carefully—Some such way as the following?

—Walt Whitman

Tennyson has written an affectionate and thankful letter to Walt Whitman on the comments of the latter—see Critic of Jan. 1st upon the supplementary 'Locksley Hall.' Is not this the only instance known of the English Laureate formally 'noticing a notice'?2

uva_ej.00123_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Joseph Benson Gilder (1858–1936) was, with his siblings Richard Watson Gilder (1844–1909) and Jeannette Leonard Gilder (1849–1916), editor of Scribner's Monthly and the Critic.

Notes

1. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) succeeded William Wordsworth as poet laureate of Great Britain in 1850. The intense male friendship described in In Memoriam, which Tennyson wrote after the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, possibly influenced Whitman's poetry. Whitman wrote to Tennyson in 1871 or late 1870, probably shortly after the visit of Cyril Flower in December, 1870, but the letter is not extant (see Thomas Donaldson, Walt Whitman the Man [New York: F. P. Harper, 1896], 223). Tennyson's first letter to Whitman is dated July 12, 1871. Although Tennyson extended an invitation for Whitman to visit England, Whitman never acted on the offer. [back]
2. Whitman's letter is written on the verso of a letter from Gilder of March 17, 1887, in which Gilder requested permission to mention the Tennyson letter of January 15, 1887. On March 26, under "Notes," The Critic printed Whitman's suggested paragraph almost verbatim. [back]