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Charles W. Hine to Walt Whitman, 9 April 1876

About This Item

  • Title: Charles W. Hine to Walt Whitman, 9 April 1876
  • Date: April 9, 1876
  • Creator(s): Charles W. Hine
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.01726
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 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.
  • Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman Elizabeth Lorang Ashley Lawson Eder Jaramillo John Schwaninger Caterina Bernardini Marie Ernster Amanda J. Axley Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Hine, Charles W.. "Charles W. Hine to Walt Whitman, 9 April 1876." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 13 January 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.01726.xml (TEI)
 loc.01726.002_large_mflm.jpg South Norwalk Ct April 9th 1876 Walt Whitman My Dear Sir

You may and doubtless will think very strange of a perfect stranger writing to you, but I have read all I could ever find of your writings and have studied and admired you more than all of the others on the top of Gods​ green Earth together, and seeing an article in the N.Y. Herald a few days ago regarding your misfortune, I wish to say I should like to subscribe  loc.01726.003_large_mflm.jpg to your forthcoming book (as I understand through the press you are about to publish one.)

I often think of a passage in your "Leaves of Grass" when you say it is wonderful how we "affect each other without ever seeing each other"1 and have sometimes felt an almost irresistible impulse to come where you are and talk with you face to face.

I think you will understand my motive well enough to think this emanates from a sincere feeling of admiration of your genius. of all the original writers (if there be such a thing as an original writer) I think you are the  loc.01726.004_large_mflm.jpg most original. You have inspired me with thoughts most sublime to myself and I devoutly thank you accept this humble tribute in the same spirit which has prompted it is the wish of your devoted admirer

C. W. Hine

P.S. will you be so kind as to reply to this giving me the much desired information regarding your forthcoming book &c and much oblige. Direct 340 Water St Bridgeport Ct.

C.W.H.

CW Hine 340 Water St Bridgeport Conn

 loc.01726.001_large_mflm.jpg CW Hine ans by sending paper & circular April 11 '76

Correspondent:
Charles W. Hine (1832–1881), of Connecticut, served as a sergeant in the Union Army during the American Civil War. According to the 1880 United States Census, Hine was a farmer, and he and his wife Marina Thomas Hine (1834–1896) were the parents of four children.

Notes

  • 1. Hine is referencing the poem that Whitman would eventually title "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?" [back]
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