Camden N.J. U S America1
July 9
Yours of June 28 just rec'd,2 & welcomed. I forgot
what I wrote ab't the P[all] M[all] Gaz.3
—but it was not for publication, (& especially not as coming from me.) I
consider myself as most handsomely treated all round, by friends & upholders in
Britain & in America—We are having fearfully hot weather here & I am
suffering from it—Just at this moment it is clouded—a great
relief—H Gilchrist4 is here finishing his portrait of me
to take back to England—it is mighty good both as likeness & work—I
am writing a little—small bits—will post them to you, when
printed—
Walt Whitman
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. This letter is addressed:
Ernest Rhys | Care Walter Scott Publisher | 24 Warwick Lane Paternoster | Row |
London | England. It is postmarked: Camden, (?) | Jun 28 | 10 AM | 87;
Philadelphia | Jun | 28 | 1887 | Paid; London E.C. | A | Jy 8 87 | AB. [back]
- 2. Rhys's letter is
apparently not extant. [back]
- 3. On May 6, 1887, William
T. Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, printed an
excerpt from a private correspondent (probably Moncure D. Conway) alleging that
Americans were not as generous as they should be in their gifts to Walt Whitman.
Herbert Gilchrist, the son of Anne Gilchrist and an artist of sorts, arrived in
New York on May 27, and appeared in Camden on June 3. For the next several
months Gilchrist worked on the portrait now in the Rare Book Department of the
University of Pennsylvania. It is reproduced in Harold W. Blodget and Sculley
Bradley, eds., Comprehensive Reader's Edition (New York:
New York University Press, 1965) and in Edwin Haviland Miller, The Artistic Legacy of Walt Whitman (New York: New York University
Press, 1970), figure 25. For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro, Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 4. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist
(1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter
and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro,
"Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]