I received your note of 30 Novr,2 & have been intending to write for some little while past.
You & I have both suffered a loss in the death of that admirable woman Mrs Gilchrist3—a strong warm nature, full of strong sympathetic sense & frank cordiality. I look round the circle of my acquaintance for her equal. Much might be said on such a topic: but often a little is as good as much.
The subscription4 has continued loc.03610.002_large.jpg going on, in much the same course as previously, as you will see from the enclosed list. In the Athenaeum (& I believe Academy) of 2 Jany a paragraph was put in, to serve as a reminder to any well-wishers: perhaps it may be expected that a few will respond, & that we may then regard our little movement as wound up. I shall always esteem it a privilege to have borne my small share in testifying the respect & gratitude to you wh. are due to you (I might say) from all open-minded men & women in the world—& from the shut-minded too, for the matter of that.
My wife & children are loc.03610.003_large.jpg away at Ventnor (Isle of Wight), as the London winter threatened to be too much for my wife's delicate chest. I expect to join them within the next few days, staying away some 3 weeks or so. As I may be a little hurried the last remaining days, it is possible that I may not just now pay in the £33.16.6. shown in the enclosed list—assuming as I do that this point wd not be regarded as material. However, the utmost likely delay wd not be long.
Yours always truly, W. M. RossettiI have seen 3 or 4 times Mr. Chas Aldrich, of Webster City, Iowa:5 he told loc.03610.004_large.jpg us of his interview with you shortly before he crossed the Atlantic. We liked him, & wd gladly have seen more of him: but this apparently will not be, for he must now be just about to sail back from Liverpool to New York.
loc.03611.001_large.jpg first instalment from W M Rossetti free will offering see notes Sept 7 & 9–1888 loc.03611.002_large.jpgCorrespondent:
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).