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June 15/80 My dearest Friend, Many tokens have you sent me.

Often dear Friend do I picture you sitting on one of the benches (may my dream come true!)

I still busy with the proof &c. of the new edition of my Husbands Husband's book.

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

Whitman: "Because you have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually in my

Feb 16/81 My dearest friend, At last I am beginning to feel myself again after a four months spell of

I feel as if my usual good health has made me obtuse & unsympathetic towards the ailing.

It was very hard for us to be sundered during my illness—but was the right thing to do, she was so much

My letter seems all about myself but then I want you to know why I have been so long silent.

I send you a photo of my little grandson. Anne Gilchrist to Walt Whitman, 16 February 1881

dearest Friend, for weeks & weeks, without being able to get leisure & tranquillity enough to do it to my

here before I am free to obey the deep faith and love which govern me—So let me sit close beside you my

—& feel your presence & take comfort & strength & serenity from it, as I do, as I can when with all my

heart & soul I draw close to you realizing your living presence with all my might.

The parents of Norah (whom he loves) have released from their unfriendly attitude since my Beatrice has

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

comfortable, elderly couple to keep house for you was a good hearing—for "the old shanty" had risen before my

My poor article has so far been rejected by editors—so I have laid it by for a little, to come with a

Whitman: "Because you have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually in my

reading it—suddenly remembered your birthday—that it was past & I had not written one word—not just put my

I was then (when I should have written—middle of May just preparing & starting on my journey to the north—first

I enjoyed everything—the being with Norah (who is like one of my own) & the dearest jolliest little man

wonderful colours & sweet odors of the sea—everything is best except the keenness of the wind which made my

MY DEAREST FRIEND: I have just been sauntering in our little but sunny garden which slopes to the South

My breath is so short I cannot walk, which is a privation.

I hope you received the little memoir of my husband all right.

My dearest Friend, Do not think me too wilful or headstrong but I have taken our tickets & we shall sail

And since we have to come to a decision my mind has been quite at rest.

I have arranged for my goods to sail a week later than we do, so as to give us time.

Good bye for a short while my dearest Friend Anne Gilchrist.

./82 Dearest friend, I like with all my heart (& head too) "A memorandum at a venture".

I have never for a moment wavered in my belief in this truth since it burst upon me a veritable sunrise

He has gone just now to my favorite Haslemere, in quest of nightingales—& I hope will make the acquaintance

My Dearest Friend: I hope you are enjoying this splendid, sunshiny weather as much as we are—the atmosphere

experience he thinks very highly, to study in Duron's Studio in Paris for a year, that I have made up my

mind to go back, for a time at any rate, this summer; but I shall leave my furniture here, and the question

Whitman: "Because you have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually in my

London May 18, 1875 My dearest Friend, Since last I wrote to you at the beginning of April (enclosing

at Colne) I have been into Wales for a fortnight to see Percy & have looked, for the first time in my

That is the end of my long story.

My children are all well & growing & unfolding to my heart's content.

Goodbye my dearest Friend. A. Gilchrist. Anne Gilchrist to Walt Whitman, 18 May 1875

Just a line of birthday greeting, my dearest Friend.

May all that will do you good come my dearest Friend–and not least the sense of relief & joy in having

That is what I believe as surely as I believe in my own existence.

best for us to go to New York (only I want to go at once where we are likeliest to stop, because of my

Solemn thoughts outleaping life, immortal aspirations of my Soul toward your soul.

Dearest Friend: I am sitting in my room with my dear little grandson, the sweetest little fellow you

Giddy and Norah (my 3d third daughter) are gone into Durham to do some shopping.

It is about the only thing I have read since my return.

hardly realized till I left it how dearly I love America—great sunny land of hope and progress—or how my

Give my love to those of our friends whom you know & tell them not to forget us.

Whitman: "Because you have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually in my

My Dearest Friend: Your card (your very voice & touch, drawing me across the Atlantic close beside you

) was put into my hand just as I was busy copying out "With husky, haughty lips O sea" to pin into my

My Dearest Friend: A kind of anxiety has for some time past weighed upon me and upon others, I find,

My love, dear Walt. Anne Gilchrist. Anne Gilchrist to Walt Whitman, 20 July 1885

My Dearest Friend: We set foot on dry land again Wednesday morning after a good passage —not a very smooth

May 20 th /73 My dearest Friend Such a joyful surprise was that last paper you sent me, with the Poem

& by thoughts you have given me blent in & suffusing all: No hope or aim or practical endeavour for my

For there is not a line nor a word in it at which my spirit does not rise up instinctive and fearlessly

draught that I know is for me, because it is for all—the love that you give me on the broad ground of my

Good bye my best beloved Friend. Annie Gilchrist.

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

Ap 21, 1876 My dearest Friend, I must write again, out of a full heart.

"The Two Rivulets" has filled it very full—Ever the deep inward assent, rising up strong, exultant, my

Ever the sense of dearness —the sweet subtle perfume, pervading every page, every line to my sense—O

nor what answering emotion pervades me, flows out towards you—sweetest deepest greatest experience of my

Do not dissuade me from coming this autumn my dearest Friend —I have waited patiently 7 years—patiently

My Dearest Friend: I have had all the welcome papers with accounts of your doings, and to-day a nice

My friends told me I looked ten years younger when I came back from America than when I went.

missing the sunshine & working a little too hard, was feeling quite knocked up: so Bee insisted on my

that you step from the lawn into [a] winding wood-path, along which I wander by the hour: and from my

My friend is a noble, large-hearted, capable woman, who devotes all her life and energies to keeping

Whitman: "Because you have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually in my

soul's passionate yearning toward thy divine Soul, every hour, every deed and thought—my love for my

children, my hopes aspirations for them all taking new shape new height through this great love My Soul

Oh for all that this love is my pride my glory.

My soul must have her loving companionship everywhere & in all things.

I am yet young enough to bear thee children my darling if God should so bless me.

NW, Jan 24/72 Dear Friend, I send you photographs of my eldest and youngest children I wish I had some

against a terrible sense of inward prostration, so it has not my natural expression, but I think you

And see my faults flaws shortcomings too dear Friend.

My Husband was taken from us too young to be able to have made any provision for his children.

I have a little of my own—about £80 a year: & for the rest depend upon my Mother whose only living child

The second copy of book & my lending one, has come safe—too—and the card that told of your attack of

illness, & the welcome news of your recovery in the Paper; & I have been fretting with impatience at my

own dumbness—but tied to as many hours a day writing as I could possibly manage, at my little book now

(last night)—finished, all but proofs, so that I can take my pleasure in "Specimen Days" at last; but

My love to brother & sister & to Hattie [&] Jessie. Good-bye, dear Walt.

1 Torriano Gardens Camden Rd London Feb 25 /76 My dearest Friend, I received the paper & enclosed slip

Soon, very soon I come my Darling.

for us— years of tranquil, tender happiness—me making your outward life serene & sweet—& you making my

benign influences round us out of our happiness and fulfilled life—Hold on but a little longer for me my

You must be very indulgent towards him for my sake dear Friend.

Gilder, Whitman justified his decision, writing that "No established publisher in the country will print my

books, & during the last three years of my illness & helplessness every one of the three successive

My Dearest Friend: Welcome was your postcard announcing recovered health & return to Camden!

Strange episode in my life!

But meanwhile, dear Friend, my work lies here: innumerable are the ties that bind us.

Please give my love to your brothers & sister. Were Jessie & Hattie at home in St.

Please give my love to John Burroughs when you write or see him.

Whitman: "Because you have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually in my

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

My Dearest Friend: The days are slipping away so pleasantly here that weeks are gone before I know it

Never in my life have I enjoyed outdoor pleasures more—I hardly think, so much—enhanced as they are by

A long letter from my sister in England tells me Per. looks well and happy & is so proud of his little

London 26 Feb 1874 My dearest Friend Glad am I when the time comes round for writing to you again—though

I can't please myself with my letters, poor little echoes that they are of the loving, hoping, far journeying

Today (Feb. 25th) is my birthday dearest Friend—a day my children always make very bright & happy to

I can bide my time,—a long long growing & unfolding time.

That is because it is the under current of my whole life.

Singing Thrush" (March 15, 1873; later called "Wandering at Morn"), "Spain" (March 24, 1873), "Sea Captains

My Dearest Friend: It seems quite a long while since I wrote, & a very long while since you wrote.

I am beginning to turn my thoughts Philadelphia-wards that we may have some weeks near you before we

ferry boats & enjoy the beautiful broad river & the sky & the throngs of people as of old—you are in my

—I cannot help grieving over public affairs too—never in my lifetime has old England been in such a bad

I could not get my article into any of the magazines I most wished.

was interested also in a little paragraph I found about Pullman town, near Chicago, which confirmed my

My Dearest Friend: Are you never coming? I do long & long to see you.

It is not for want of thinking of you, dear Walt, that I write but seldom: for indeed my thoughts are

which I wrote you Sept. 6th after I had received the precious packet, a letter in which I opened all my

I know too my own shortcomings, faults, flaws.

Love & Hope are so strong in me, my souls high aspirations are of such tenacious, passionate intensity

But I cannot like you clothe my nature in divine poems & so make it visible to you. Ah foolish me!

I felt as if my silence must kill me sometimes.

London Earls Colne Aug. 28. 1875 My dearest Friend Your letter came to me just when I most needed the

comfort of it—when I was watching and tending my dear Mother as she gently, slowly, with but little

I do not need to tell you anything my dearest friend—you know all—I feel your strong comforting hand—I

I had all my children with me at the funeral— O the comfort your dear letter was & is to me.

My children join their love with mine. Anne Gilchrist to Walt Whitman, 28 August 1875

March 28/ 80 My dearest Friend Has it seemed to you a long while since I wrote?

And as regards my own feelings (though I am sorry for her sorrow, & sorry too that the excellent work

if not I will tell it you in my next & you will like him all the more.

My love to all My thoughts travel daily to America—it has become a part of my life in a very real sense

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

12 Well Road Jan January 29, '82 1882 My Dearest Friend: Your letter to Herby was a real talk with you

As I write this I am sitting to Herby for my portrait again—he has never satisfied himself yet: but this

that what with memory & photograph & the studies he made when with you, he will be able to put you & my

I will not write any more such letters; or, if I write them because my heart is so full it cannot bear

must choose their our own time & mode—but for the simplest current details—for any thing that helps my

And if you say, "Read my books, & be content—you have me in them"—I say, it is because I read them so

my children to be shaped modified vitalized by & through these—outwardly & inwardly.

Good bye my dearest friend. Anne Gilchrist Anne Gilchrist to Walt Whitman, 3 June 1872

50 Marquis Rd Camden London Nov. 3/'73 My dearest Friend, All the papers have reached me—3 separate packets

(with the hand writing on them that makes my heart give a glad bound).

May you be steadily though ever so slowly gaining ground, my Darling!

My children all continue well in the main.

And how that line will gladden my eyes Darling! Love from us all. Goodbye.

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

editorial decisions, which included editing potentially objectionable content and removing entire poems: "My

MY DEAREST FRIEND: I had a lingering hope —till Herby went south again—that I should have a letter from

I expect Herby has described our neighbours to you—specially Levi Bryant, the father of my hostess—a

Chadwick, &c., from New York, with whom I have pleasant chats daily when I trudge up to fetch my letters—now

Earls Colne Sept. 3. 1874 My dearest Friend The change down here has refreshed me more than usual and

I find my Mother still wonderful for her years (the 89th), able to get out daily in her Bath chair for

I have been before breakfast mostly in a beautiful garden (the old Priory garden) with my beloved Poems

heart—pain for you, my Darling.

always to be with my Mother here.

his letter to Anne Gilchrist of August 18, 1873, a ring: "The enclosed ring I have just taken from my

finger & send you with my love."

, 1873, she wrote about her children; and on December 18, 1873, she said of his health: "Perhaps if my

I turn my face to the westward sky and before I lie down to sleep, deep & steadfast within me the silent

September 3 Dear Friend At last the beloved books have reached my hand —yet now I have them, my heart

In 1861 my children took scarlet fever badly: I thought I should have lost my dear oldest girl.

My youngest was then a baby.

O the voice of my Mate: it must be so—my love rises up out of the very depths of the grief & tramples

It is not happiness I plead with God for—it is the very life of my Soul, my love is its life.

Dec. 30, 1874 I see, my dearest Friend, I must not look for those dashes under the words I thought were

going to convey a joyful confirmation of my hopes.

I believe my dear love that what you need to help on your recovery is a woman's tender cherishing love

are very bright & cheerful—she & indeed all my children enjoy the cold much provided they have plenty

you are well, and that you have felt the warm grasp of many loving friends this wintry cloudy time my

My Dearest Friend: Lazy me, that have been thinking letters to you instead of writing them!

But they do: I am as sure of that as of my own existence. When will men begin to understand them?

of the sea and I seem to remember such a place near Lynn Regis, where I was thirty years ago, when my

My little book on Mary Lamb just out—will send you a copy in a day or two.

In the afternoon the books, I dont don't know how to settle down my thoughts calmly enough to write,

I have not shut my eyes to the difficulties and trials & responsibilities (for the childrens children's

discontent with old England or by any adverse circumstances here which I might hope to better there—my

reasons, emotions, the sources of my strength and courage for the uprooting & transplanting—all are

That America has brought them forth makes me want to plant some, at least, of my children on her soil

Or it may be my words have led you to do me some kind of injustice in thought,—& then I could defend

only might, but ought, on pain of being untrue to the greatest, sweetest instincts & aspirations of my

own soul, to answer it with all my heart & strength & life.

out life giving warmth & light to my inward self as actually as the Sun does to my body, & draws me

to it and shapes & shall shape my course just as the Sun shapes the Earth's.

Though it is but a few days since I posted a letter my dearest friend, I must write you again—because

I cannot help it, my heart is so full—so full of love & sorrow and struggle.

Soon soon as ever my boy has one to love & care for him all his own, I will come, I may not before, not

if it should break my heart to stop away from you, for his welfare is my sacred charge & nearer & dearer

than all to me verily my God, strengthen me, comfort me, stay for me—let that have a little beginning

Sept 4–1873 I am entirely satisfied & at peace "my Beloved—no words can say how divine a peace.

My Darling! take comfort & strength & joy from me that you have made so rich & strong.

When my eyes first open in the morning, often such tender thoughts yearning ineffably pitying sorrowful

—my hands want to be so helpful, tending, soothing, serving my whole frame to support the stricken side

My children send their love, their earnest sympathy.

not think hard of me for not writing oftener, especially the last seven months—If you could look into my

his letter to Anne Gilchrist of August 18, 1873, a ring: "The enclosed ring I have just taken from my

finger & send you with my love."

, 1873, she wrote about her children; and on December 18, 1873, she said of his health: "Perhaps if my

I turn my face to the westward sky and before I lie down to sleep, deep & steadfast within me the silent

Camden Sq July 4, 1874 My Dearest Friend Are you well and happy and enjoying this beautiful summer?

life-giving treasure—open on my lap.

My Darling! such patience yet needed along the tedious path!

—Not more spontaneously & wholly without effort or volition on my part, does the sunlight flow into my

My children are all well, dear Friend.

My Dearest Friend: Those few words of yours to Herby "tasted good" to us —few, but enough, seeing that

here as by a kind of natural destiny that has to be fulfilled very cheerfully, could I make America my

I say how very highly I prize that last slip you sent me, "A backward glance on my own road"?

"A Backward Glance on My Own Road," The Critic, 4 (5 January 1884), 1–2.

I am getting on—my heart is in my work—& though I have been long about it, it won't be long—but I think

My Dearest Friend: You could not easily realize the strong emotion with which I read your last note and

I have my dear little grandson with me here—as engaging a little toddler as the sun ever shone upon—so

wish I could write to some of them, but what with needlework, an avalanche of letters, the care of my

dear little man—the re-editing of my husband's life of Blake, to which there will be a considerable

Per. & my nephew & the "Process" have made a great stride forward.

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

My Dearest Friend: Herby has told you of our difficulties in getting comfortable quarters here—and also

B. was always my friend—that his allusions were always kind—that he quoted 'Leaves of Grass' without

I am still struggling along, striving to say something which, if I can say it to my mind, will be useful—will