I write in haste, & specially for the business purpose named further on. Mrs. Gilchrist1 & Dowden2 (who happens just now to be in London) have seen your letter of 17 March,3 & doubtless appreciated it as I do. I have received also your post-card of 20 March,4 & the Two Rivulets5 wh. that announced.
What I want to know is the precise fact about the prices &c of your books. The printed slip mentions only Leaves of
Grass £1 ($5), Two Rivulets £1, Mem. during
war6 6/—, & all 3 for £2; & of each of these only 100 copies
printed. Is it a fact then that a L. Grass is not
anyhow obtainable at less than £1 nowadays? & that, when 100 copies are sold no more purchasers
need apply? w.d you kindly tell me precisely about
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all this. Were it not that I find the uncertainty about this most embarrassing, & the presumable chance
of enlisting purchasers at such high prices much diminished, I shd
already have drawn up my proposed circular to start the scheme. Perhaps you w.d
prefer to telegraph back in fewest words: note this as you prefer.
Your poems printed in Athenaeum7 of 1 April.
Some minor details when next I write.
Your Affectionate W. M. RossettiPlease tell me also how you
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w.d like me to send over the various sums I have received for your
books. I presume you w.d send the books direct
to the purchasers: not but that I w.d receive & distribute them
if really any object to you, but it w.d cause delay to all, & to
me some work of a kind at wh. I am not particularly ready.
Correspondent:
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).