I send you
the estimate of you I
had room to publish
last year in one of
our most important Reviews,
La Nouvelle Revue.2 Unfortunately
the essay is not complete;
I was obliged to shorten
it, as it is often the
case, when one writes
for periodicals, and I would
not myself encroach on
the space devoted to the loc.03737.002_large.jpg
work of other contributors;
but my second series
of English and American
poets will soon appear
in book form, and there
will I print all I
wrote first about you, to
the full extent.
Did you
hear a lady friend of
mine, Madame Blanc-Bentzon3
reviewed "Leaves of Grass"
in the Revue des Deux-Mondes4?
She did it ten or fifteen
years ago, I don't remember
exactly the date, and the
same book was also reviewed
four years ago by Madame
Léo Quesnel,5 in the Revue
Politique et Litteraire.6 Lately, a loc.03737.003_large.jpg
young writer, M. Francis Vielé–Griffin7 translated
Faces in a less known
periodical, La Revue indépendante;8
and I have been told
another young poet, who
died five years ago, M.
Jules Laforgue,9 translated,
I know not where, A Woman
Waits for me. I cannot
procure easily the essays
or translations; but for
that, I should have
forwarded them to you.
Correspondent:
Gabriel Sarrazin (1853–1935)
was a translator and poet from France who commented positively not only on
Whitman's work but also on Poe's. Whitman later corresponded with Sarrazin and
apparently liked the critic's work on Leaves of
Grass—Whitman even had Sarrazin's chapter on his book translated
twice. For more on Sarrazin, see Carmine Sarracino, "Sarrazin, Gabriel (1853–1935)," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).