I received with thanks, & read with much interest, the article by Mr. Hinton1 wh. you sent me. Besides Mr. Hinton's own share in the article, I was particularly glad to see in full Emerson's2 letter written on the first appearance of Leaves of Grass.3 Of this I had hitherto only seen an expression or two extracted.
Will you allow me to respond by sending two English notices of the selection. The one
in the Academia I find is written by a Mr. Robertson4 whom I
have met occasionally—a Scotchman of acute intellectual sympathies. The
alterations noted in ink in his article are reproduced by me from the copy wh. he
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himself sent me: I infer that they are in conformity with the original
M.S., but cut out by a less ardent Editor. The Sunday Times is edited by a Mr. Knight5
of whom also I have some slight personal knowledge. I think the review6 in that paper
is very likely done by Mr. Knight himself. The Academia is a recently-started paper,
chiefly scholastic, and I suppose of restricted circulation. The Sunday Times has no
doubt a very large circulation, & a good standing among weekly
newspapers—not being however a specially literary
organ.
You will, I think, have seen through Mr. Conway7 the notice, also eulogistic, in the London Review8 I am told of a hostile one in the Express (evening edition of the Daily News) but have not seen it: the Morning Star9 (the paper most closely connected with John Bright) had a very handsome notice about a week ago—but, like all literary reviews in that paper, a brief one. These are all the notices I know of at present. Perhaps I ought to apologize for saying so much to you about a matter wh. I know plays but the smallest part in your thoughts & interests as a poet.
As to the sale of the book I really know nothing as yet—not having once seen the publisher since the volume was issued.
A glance at the Sunday Times notice recalls to my attention a sentence therein wh. I sh.d perhaps refer to—about your having given express sanction &c. Where the writer gets this from I know not—certainly not from me: indeed the P.J. to the selection asserts the exact contrary, and I have not so much as seen Mr. Knight for (I dare say) a couple of years.
With warmest regard and friendship, Yours W. M. RossettiCorrespondent:
William Michael Rossetti (1829–1915), brother
of Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti, was an English editor and a champion of
Whitman's work. In 1868, Rossetti edited Whitman's Poems,
selected from the 1867 Leaves of Grass. Whitman referred
to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871, letter to Frederick S. Ellis. Nonetheless,
the edition provided a major boost to Whitman's reputation, and Rossetti would
remain a staunch supporter for the rest of Whitman's life, drawing in
subscribers to the 1876 Leaves of Grass and fundraising
for Whitman in England. For more on Whitman's relationship with Rossetti, see
Sherwood Smith, "Rossetti, William Michael (1829–1915)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).