A thousand thanks for the "Leaves of Grass" and many many more for the inscription—
As soon as the book came I read to a party of friends the "Mystic Trumpeter"2 and we were all stirred to the very depths as though by the blast of a trumpet. What a beautiful, hopeful, imaginative, tender—prophetic and superb poem it is!—Then loc.02352.002_large.jpg I read Sea Drift—The guests from Alabama, and then "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed"—and we all agreed that there could not be found in our literature three poems to equal these in intensity, tenderness, philosophy and dramatic form.3—
The only objection I have to the book is that it purports to be finished—with you, while there is life there will be song. loc.02352.003_large.jpg You have not reached the journey's end and, while a grain of sand remains within the glass of time, there's something left unsaid that we, your friends, would gladly hear. You must not say Goodbye!—Wait and let that be the last. Thanking you again for the book and especially for the loving words
I am as ever your friend and admirer R.G. IngersollMrs. Ingersoll4 writes with me in thanks, congratulations and regards—
loc.02352.004_large.jpg see notes Dec 10th & 16th—also 17th—1891 loc.02352.005_large.jpgCorrespondent:
Robert "Bob" Green Ingersoll
(1833–1899) was a Civil War veteran and an orator of the post-Civil War
era, known for his support of agnosticism. Ingersoll was a friend of Whitman,
who considered Ingersoll the greatest orator of his time. Whitman said to Horace
Traubel, "It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll, for he is
Leaves of Grass. He lives, embodies, the
individuality I preach. I see in Bob the noblest
specimen—American-flavored—pure out of the soil, spreading, giving,
demanding light" (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Wednesday, March 25, 1891). The feeling was mutual. Upon Whitman's
death in 1892, Ingersoll delivered the eulogy at the poet's funeral. The eulogy
was published to great acclaim and is considered a classic panegyric (see
Phyllis Theroux, The Book of Eulogies [New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1997], 30).