I duly received your kind enclosures a few days ago!1 I am much obliged to you for your ready response to my letter. May I keep the newspaper cutting or do you wish wish me to send it back to you?
Please send me a copy of "Leaves of Grass"—the Special Edition as noted on the little Slip you sent me—marked thereon at $5—I think that is about £1.1.0 of our currency & for this I enclose P.O. Order but if this is not sufficient let me know please & I will send on the balance.
I sincerely hope you are well—some of us here wish we had the power to stay the finger on the dial—& delay the approach of your December—yet it is better, after all to leave these matters to the All-Father who in Wisdom & Love directs & guides & who "doeth all things well"—
Ever affectionately Yours— Edmund J. BaillieCorrespondent:
Edmund John Baillie
(1851–1897) was a Welsh horticulturalist specializing in fruit trees and a
Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. In 1882, he published John Ruskin: Aspects of his Thought and Teachings (London: John
Pearce). Baillie served as vice president of the Vegetarian Society and
president of the John Ruskin Society in Liverpool. For more information, see
"Mr. E. J. Baillie," The Manchester Guardian (October 19,
1897), 12.