Ernest Rhys to Walt Whitman, 7 June 1888

About This Item

Title: Ernest Rhys to Walt Whitman, 7 June 1888
Date: June 7, 1888
Creator(s): Ernest Rhys
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03329
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.

Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
Contributors to digital file: Jeannette Schollaert Ian Faith Stefan Schöberlein Stephanie Blalock Caterina Bernardini
Cite this page: Rhys, Ernest. "Ernest Rhys to Walt Whitman, 7 June 1888." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 22 January 2026. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.03329.xml (TEI)

loc.03329.001_large.jpg The Union League Club New York, 7th June, 1888. Dear Walt Whitman,

These last days have been so crowded with work & play, that there has been no fair chance to do any writing. What with Stedman1—who celebrated my last night in America yesterday by toasting me with mint-juleps at the Hoffman House, & Col. Bob Ingersoll,2 who has been loc.03329.002_large.jpg giving me all sorts of wrinkles in oratory at his own house & in public (It was a great experience to hear him speak to an audience of actors at Madison Square Theatre on Tuesday,)—& what with endless other episodes of a friendly & delightful kind, it is a wonder that I have the heart to say goodbye to America at all. At last the end has come however. I sail by the Crystal this afternoon at 3 o'clock for Leith, & with this news I must now say once more Goodbye, & be silent again for a while.

With much love! Ernest Rhys

Remember me to Mrs. Davies!3

loc.03329.003_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Ernest Percival Rhys (1859–1946) was a British author and editor; he founded the Everyman's Library series of inexpensive reprintings of popular works. He included a volume of Whitman's poems in the Canterbury Poets series and two volumes of Whitman's prose in the Camelot series for Walter Scott publishers. For more information about Rhys, see Joel Myerson, "Rhys, Ernest Percival (1859–1946)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).

Notes

1. Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833–1908) was a man of diverse talents. He edited for a year the Mountain County Herald at Winsted, Connecticut, wrote "Honest Abe of the West," presumably Lincoln's first campaign song, and served as correspondent of the New York World from 1860 to 1862. In 1862 and 1863 he was a private secretary in the Attorney General's office until he entered the firm of Samuel Hallett and Company in September, 1863. The next year he opened his own brokerage office. He published many volumes of poems and was an indefatigable compiler of anthologies, among which were Poets of America, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1885) and A Library of American Literature from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, 11 vols. (New York: C. L. Webster, 1889–90). For more, see Donald Yannella, "Stedman, Edmund Clarence (1833–1908)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
2. 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). [back]
3. Mary Oakes Davis (1837 or 1838–1908) was Whitman's housekeeper. For more, see Carol J. Singley, "Davis, Mary Oakes (1837 or 1838–1908)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]