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Camden New Jersey US America1
March 12 '88
Dear H—
Yours of Feb: 17 is rec'd all right—best thanks to Mrs. Rosamund Powell for
continuous subscription, safely rec'd2—I am in good
heart & still writing a little but near the end of my rope I
opine—Mrs.S[tafford]3 was here lately—& she is
first rate—all the rest pretty well—
Tell me the fortunes of the bust,4
whatever happens
—Morse5 is still west—Rhys6 is in Boston7
W W
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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 postal card is
addressed: Herbert H. Gilchrist | 12 Well Road | Hampstead | London England. It
is postmarked: Camden | MAR | 8 PM | 88; PHILADELPHIA | 1[illegible] | 1888 | Paid. [back]
- 2. In his letter of February 17, 1888, Herbert Gilchrist enclosed a
financial contribution of 3 pounds from Rosamund Powell, a friend Gilchrist's
friend, the English teacher Leonard M. Brown (c. 1857–1928). [back]
- 3. Susan M. Lamb Stafford
(1833–1910) was the mother of Harry Stafford (1858–1918), who, in
1876, became a close friend of Whitman while working at the printing office of
the Camden New Republic. Whitman regularly visited the
Staffords at their family farm near Kirkwood, New Jersey. Whitman enjoyed the
atmosphere and tranquility that the farm provided and would often stay for weeks
at a time (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], 685). [back]
- 4. Whitman had sent one of
Sidney Morse's plaster busts of the poet to his friend Robert Pearsall Smith in
England; see Whitman's letter to Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe of September 14, 1887. [back]
- 5. Sidney H. Morse (1832–1903)
was a self-taught sculptor as well as a Unitarian minister and, from 1866 to
1872, editor of The Radical. He visited Whitman in Camden
many times and made various busts of him. Whitman had commented on an earlier
bust by Morse that it was "wretchedly bad." For more on this, see Ruth L. Bohan,
Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art,
1850–1920 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,
2006), 105–109. [back]
- 6. 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). [back]
- 7. In his letter of March 7,
1888, Ernest Rhys reported the "very hearty reception" given to him by Harvard
University students. [back]