I send you by mail to-day, same address as this note, 1 copy, Leaves of Grass and two copies Two
Rivulets2—Also the set, Two Vols. for
Rev. A B Grosart3 as the address sent me for Mr. G's
books dont appear to me specific & full enough. I have also sent same mail with
this a set, Two Vols. directed Rev. Prof. Dowden,4 North
Brantisfield Pl. Edinburgh, Scotland—(Is that address
right?—The Scotland was not on the address as sent
me)—I have also sent a copy of Two Rivulets to Rev. R P Graves,5 1 Watson r'd , Leeson Park Dublin. (Eight Volumes altogether, for which the pay
was some time since rec'd
by me from Wm Rossetti,6) Please loc.01498.004_large.jpg send me word soon as they reach
you safely—& also whether Rev. Mr. Dowden's set was directed right—My second batch of the new edition (600 copies each Vol.) is
at last now ready, & I promptly supply orders
henceforward. I have many things to say to you my dear friend.
I am sitting here by the open window, writing this, 'most sundown—feeling pretty well for me, as things go—often think of you & yours, & the friends in Ireland—must close as I want to send this to catch to-morrow's New York mail.7
Walt Whitman.Correspondent:
Edward Dowden (1843–1913), professor of
English literature at the University of Dublin, was one of the first to
critically appreciate Whitman's poetry, particularly abroad, and was primarily
responsible for Whitman's popularity among students in Dublin. In July 1871,
Dowden penned a glowing review of Whitman's work in the Westminster Review entitled "The Poetry of Democracy: Walt Whitman," in which Dowden described
Whitman as "a man unlike any of his predecessors. . . . Bard of America, and
Bard of democracy." In 1888, Whitman observed to Traubel: "Dowden is a book-man:
but he is also and more particularly a man-man: I guess that is where we
connect" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Sunday, June 10, 1888, 299). For more, see Philip W. Leon, "Dowden, Edward (1843–1913)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).