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328 Mickle street
Camden New Jersey U S America1
Aug. 23 '86
Dear Herbert
Thank you for the remittance of the £2 from Prof. Dowden2—(& I
deeply thank him also)—Of the Circular—Should you have them to spare, I should like a dozen
copies3—I have had a pretty good summer, so
far—better than last summer—I drove down yesterday (Sunday) to
Glendale4 & staid four or five hours—took dinner there—In
general, matters there ab't as usual—Mrs. Stafford5 up & around, but
not near as healthy & strong as I would like to see her—the rest all
well—We talked of you—Address Wm D. O'Connor,6 Life Saving Service, Treasury Department,
Washington D. C., U S America—
—I get letters from Dr. Bucke7, who is home in London, Canada8—I send enclosed a ¶ for your
consideration for the book—I send my best love
& thanks to you & Wm Rossetti.
Walt Whitman
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Some of her most beautiful, characteristic, interesting and copious letters were written to her friend Walt
Whitman the American poet. I suggested to Mr. Whitman, the giving of these
letters or rather extracts from them, for publication in the present volume. But
the poet was not entirely favorable or willing. "I do not know," he says in a
late letter to me, "that I can furnish any good reason, but I feel to keep these
sweet utterances exclusively to myself.
But I cannot let your book go to press without at least saying—and wishing
it put on record—that among the perfect women I have known (and it has
been my unspeakably good fortune to have had the very best for mother, sisters
and friends) I have known none more perfect in every relation than my dear, dear
friend Anne Gilchrist."9
Herbert,10 I am sorry not to be able to
respond to your request for letters or the like
—Can't you bring in this ¶ somewhere in the book?11
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Correspondent:
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).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Herbert H. Gilchrist | 12 Well Road | Hampstead | London | England. It is
postmarked: London, N.W. | 7 U | Sp 3 | 86. [back]
- 2. Edward Dowden (1843–1913), professor of
English literature at the University of Dublin, was one of the first to
critically appreciate Whitman's poetry, particularly abroad, and was primarily
responsible for Whitman's popularity among students in Dublin. In July 1871,
Dowden penned a glowing review of Whitman's work in the Westminster Review entitled "The Poetry of Democracy: Walt Whitman," in which Dowden described
Whitman as "a man unlike any of his predecessors. . . . Bard of America, and
Bard of democracy." In 1888, Whitman observed to Traubel: "Dowden is a book-man:
but he is also and more particularly a man-man: I guess that is where we
connect" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Sunday, June 10, 1888, 299). For more, see Philip W. Leon, "Dowden, Edward (1843–1913)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. The "Circular" was a
facsimile of Walt Whitman's letter to Rossetti (see the letter from Whitman to
William Michael Rossetti of May 30, 1886). [back]
- 4. Glendale, New Jersey, was
where the Staffords had moved after leaving their farm at Timber Creek, where
Whitman had often visited. [back]
- 5. Susan (1833–1910) and
George Stafford (1827–1892) were the parents of Whitman's young friend,
Harry Stafford. Whitman often visited the family at their farm at Timber Creek
in Laurel Springs (near Glendale), New Jersey, and was sometimes accompanied by
Herbert Gilchrist; in the 1880s, the Staffords sold the farm and moved to nearby
Glendale. For more, see David G. Miller, "Stafford, George and Susan M.," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 6. William Douglas O'Connor
(1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet
The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866.
For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 7. Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a
Canadian physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and
meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke
claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him
to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany.
Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt
Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one
of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of
Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 8. On September 10 Herbert Gilchrist wrote: "What I wrote
about Dr B[ucke] sings discordantly in my ears—but in truth I was and am
angry at his cool request to hand over your letters (& mothers) to him: his
injudicious literary zeal does you and every body else harm." [back]
- 9. This paragraph appears in
Herbert's preface to his biography of his mother: "I do not know . . . that I
can furnish any good reason, but I feel to keep these utterances exclusively to
myself. But I cannot let your book go to press without at least saying—and
wishing it put on record—that among the perfect women I have known (and it
has been my unspeakably good fortune to have had the very best, for mother,
sisters and friends) I have known none more perfect in every relation, than my
dear, dear friend, Anne Gilchrist." Apparently in a lost letter Herbert had
asked permission to include his mother's letters to the poet. See also Whitman's
letter to Herbert Gilchrist of September 14, 1886.
Herbert's mother, Anne Burrows Gilchrist (1828–1885), was the author of
one of the first significant pieces of criticism on Leaves of
Grass, titled "A Woman's Estimate of Walt Whitman (From Late Letters by
an English Lady to W. M. Rossetti)," Radical 7 (May
1870), 345–59. Gilchrist's long correspondence with Whitman indicates that
she had fallen in love with the poet after reading his work; when the pair met
in 1876 when she moved to Philadelphia, Whitman never fully returned her
affection, although their friendship deepened after that meeting. For more
information on their relationship, see Marion Walker Alcaro, "Gilchrist, Anne Burrows (1828–1885)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 10. This part of the letter can
be found at the top of the second page. [back]
- 11. On the verso of page 4 of
the letter, in an unknown hand or hands, crossed out, are various letters and
words, including "House Keeping / Immediately," "Transatlantic August 29," and
"Mary O. Davis." Mary Davis was Whitman's housekeeper. [back]