Your letter of the 15th with the 'Additional Note' was not long in following the
other,1 & with it the 'Specimen Days' vol. is now
splendidly complete.2 As the book stands now, there is a native unity about it, more
I think than when it was given together with the 'Democratic Vistas.' These later
parts of the original 'S. Days & Collect' will follow naturally as the more
theoretic exposition of your life & thought, prepared for effectively & made
so of greater effect, it seems to me. With the D. Vistas completed3 in turn, my cup
will be overflowing indeed. It is something I think of enthusiastically that soon
they will both be in the hands of the gay fellows everywhere, whose energies will
presently be master of the spirit of the time. And what you have added to the book
is so exactly what was wanted to give it direct appeal to us here, & bring it into touch.
Personally I cannot say how grateful I feel for these gifts you have made me the
almoner of. As for the 'Democratic Vistas,' I hope you will be able to let us have
some of the essays & papers that have appeared in the Critic & other
publications, to add to it. As you know, the copy we have now by us is hardly enough
to make a full volume. You shall be duly apprised of the publishing details, of both
vols. as time goes on. We propose an interval of four uva_ej.00132_large.jpg to six or eight months between the
2 vols. so that there is plenty of time to settle about the 2nd. Already the news that
you have published additional matter to the 'Specimen Days in America' has excited
great interest among those who know you here.
I told you I was going to see Mrs. Costelloe4 the other
evening. Count Stenbock5 arrived here in a fast hansom in his
usual erratic way, & whirled me off there about nine o'clock, & we had 'a
good time' then till midnight, including the brewing of a wassail bowl
(non-alcoholic) with comic result by Steinbock & an American girl who was there.
Mrs. Costelloe impressed me most delightfully. She is one of the five or six noblest
women I have come across; I say this quite deliberately. I would give a great deal
to be able to meet & talk with such an one often, & I am sorry that the C's
are going away to the country for Easter for my own sake; though on the other hand it
is a sin that such a superb creature should be cooped up in a place like London,
under society restrictions at all, & as she is nearing the time of motherhood,
one ought only to be glad at her escape to the fields & flowers & free air.
Costelloe6 himself is of too hard
an intellectuality I am afraid, to give us much in common, but I get on with almost
everybody, & I can see that he is at any rate a very genuine & capable
fellow in his way.—By the by Mrs. C. shewed me two portraits of you which I
had not seen before, & she told me to ask you for a copy of one, called by her
the King Lear one. She said uva_ej.00133_large.jpg she would tell you about it in her
next letter. Before we came away, she read out your preface to the assembled little
company of guests—mainly Americans, & it was received with enthusiasm, for
besides its own natural effect she read it very impressively. Curiously enough Roden
Noel7 had been there the same afternoon. I go down to dine
with him occasionally at his place near the Crystal Palace. He is very sympathetic
with L. of G. Costelloe was rather making fun of him from Mrs. C's description,
because he accepted Hegel & spiritualism & sundry other paradoxical
positions on thought. There is a fine fund of manhood in Noel though. He is better
on the sea-shore than in his study, where indeed he is rather apt to grow
unprofitably vague over questions of poetry & philosophy, which is to say Roden
Noel & Hegel chiefly.
I had a piece of rather awkward news about W.S. Kennedy's8 book9 this morning. After writing many times in vain to Wilson,10 I had a note from his brother to say that he is ill again, & cannot arrange about the book at present, returning it to me accordingly. It is very unfortunate indeed, for it is very difficult to get a book of unconventional character afloat in the cockney world of publishers. There is some chance of Wilson's being able to take the book in the autumn, but that is such a long time to wait.11
Spring has fairly set in here at last. I hope it is the same with you. I have many a good ramble far & wide here, & there is much to see on the riverside always. They are building a new bridge (Battersea Bge) close by, & I often go & watch them at their pile-driving & so on. The thump of the monkey on the piles goes on night & day; after dark they have an electric light which sends a fine gleam across here. But it's short-time, & I must stop for to-day. Goodbye!
Ernest RhysCorrespondent:
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).