Feinberg/Whitman Box 15 Folder 10 General Correspondence Rosetti, William Michael Nov. 1867 - Feb. 1876 (DCN 167)Camden, New Jersey U.S. America. March 17th, 1876. 431 Stevens Street, Cor West. W.M. Rossetti, Dear Friend, - Yours of the 28th Feb. received, and indeed welcomed and appreciated. I am jogging along still about the same in physical condition - still certainly no worse, and I sometimes lately suspect rather better, or at any rate more adjusted to the situation - Even begin to think of making some move, some change of base &c.: the doctors have been advising it for over two years, but I haven't felt to do it yet. My paralysis does not lift - I cannot walk any distance - I still have this baffling, obstinate, apparently chronic affection of the stomachic apparatus and liver: yet (as told in former letters) I get out of doors a little every day - write and read in moderation - appetite sufficiently good (eat only very plain food, but always did that) - digestion tolerable - and spirits unflagging. As said above, I have told you most of this before, but suppose you might like to know it all again, up to date. Of course, and pretty darkly colouring the whole, are bad spells, prostrations, some pretty grave ones, intervals - and I have resigned myself to the certainty of permanent incapacitation from solid work: but things may continue at least in this half-and-half way for months - even years. My books are out, the new edition; a set of which, immediately on receiving your letter of 28th, I have sent you (by Mail, March 15), and I suppose you have before this received them My dear friend, your offers of help, and those of my other British friends, I think I fully appreciate, in the right spirit, welcome and acceptive - leaving the matter altogether in your and their hands - and to your and their convenience, discretion, leisure, and nicety. Though poor now, even to penury, I have not so far been deprived of any physical thing I need or which whatever, and I feel confident I shall not in the future. DUring my employment of seven years or more in Washington after the war (1865-72) I regularly saved a great part of my wages: and, though the sum has now become about exhausted by my expenses of the last three years, there are already beginning at present welcome dribbles hitherward from the sales of my new edition, which I just job and sell, myself (as the book-agents here for three years in New York have successively, deliberately, badly cheated me), and shall continue to dispose of the books myself. And that is the way I should prefer to glean my support. In that way I cheerfully accept all the aid my friends find it convenient to proffer. To repeat a little, and without undertaking details, understand, dear friend, for yourself and all, that I heartily and most affectionately thank my British friends, and that I accept their sympathetic generosity in the same spirit in which I believe (nay, know) it is offered - that though poor I am not in want - that I maintain good heart and cheer, and that by far the most satisfaction to me (and I think it can be done and believe it will be) will be to live, as long as possible, on the sales, by myself, of my own works, and perhaps, if practicable, by further writings for the press. Walt Whitman. I am prohibited from writing too much, and I must make this candid statement of the situation serve for all my dear friends over there.56 Easton Sq. London, N.W. 17 Novr./67. My dear Sir, Allow me with the deepest reverence & true affection to thank you for the copy of your complete poems I have just received from you thro' our excellent friend Mr. Conway--& still more for the accompanying letter to him, in which you authorize me to make, in the forthcoming London issue of your poems, such verbal changes as may appear to me indispensableto meet the requirements of publicity in this country & time. I feel greatly honored by your tolerance extended to me in this respect, & assure you that, if such a permission can in the nature of things be used rightly it shall not be abused by me. My selection was settled more than a month ago, & is now going thru' the prep. The only writing of yours from wh. I thought it at all admissible (with your consent applied for thru Mr. Conway) to cut anything out that was the prose preface to the first Leaves of Grass. As for the poems, I felt bound not to tamper with their integrity in any the slightest degree, & therefore any of them which appeared to [me] [?] contain matter startling to the length of British ears have been entirely excluded. But now, after your letter it seems to me that all or most of these poems, with some minimum of verbal modification or excision, may very properly be included: & indeed that there is nothing to prevent a [?] reprint of the revised copy of your complete poems (wh. you sent to Mr. Conway) coming out at once, instead of the mere selection--subject only to modification or excision here & there as above named Of course I w. explain in print that the responsibility of this shabby job belongs to me--fortified only by your abstaining from prohibiting it; for such a prohibition wd. be sacred to me. I have just written in this sense to the publisher Mr. Hotten. I cannot clearly anticipate whether or not he will be disposed thus to sacrifice his outlay hitherto on the selection, & embark at once on the complete edition. If he does, it will please me all the better. I shall always hold it one of the truest & most prized distinctions of my writing career to be associated, in however modesta capacity, with the works of so great a poet & noble-hearted a man as you. The time is fast coming here as elsewhere, when to be one of your enthusiastic admirers will only be to be one of many. I shall remember with a degree of self-congratulation, that in 1855 I was one of the few. Dear Sir, believe me Most respectfully & truly yours, W.M. RossettiLONDON. W.C. NO 18 67 N. [?????] NOV 29 PAID Walt Whitman Washington U.S.A. from Mr. Rossetti No 3 CARRIER NOV 30 1 DEL.see notes Sept 21 1888 sent Nov. 22, '67 [1] I suppose [you have ] Mr. Conway has rec'd, & you have read, the letter I sent [from here] over about three weeks since, assenting to the substitution of other words, &c. [desired] as proposed by you, in your reprint of my book, or selections therefrom. [As I] I suppose [I hope the book will] the reprint intends to avoid[, &] any expressed or implied character of being an expurgated edition--& hope it will [preserve] simply assume the form & name of a [being a] selection from the various editions of my pieces, [print] [issued] printed here, [from time to time]. I suggest, in the interest of that view, [that] whether the following [would not be] might not be [the proper] a good form of Title page: WALT WHITMAN'S POEMS Selected from the American Editions By Wm M Rossetti. 2 [The] When I have [another] my next edition brought out here I shall change the title of the piece, "When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom'd." to "President Lincoln's Funeral Hymn." [Should] You are at liberty to take the latter name, or the old one, at your option, (if you include the piece in your reprint.) I wish particularly not only that the little figures numbering the stanzas, but also that the larger figures [over the different pass] dividing the pieces into separate passages or sections, be carefully preserved[.] as in copy. It is quite certain that I shall add to my next edition (according to my plan from the first) a brief [series] cluster of pieces, born of [the] thoughts on the deep themes, [of] Death & Immortality.--[which will give a tinge to [my] the whole book [probably] different [from [?] from the [?] its present] 100 14 ____ 86 180 _____ 6880 86 _______ 15480 50,00 ________ 104, 803 You will allow me to send [my you an a] you an article I have printed on "Democracy"--[but] [only] a hasty charcoal=sketch of a piece, but indicative [perhaps], to any one interested in Leaves of Grass, as of the audience [that] the book [is prepared for.] supposed & [is in a part] in whose interest [the book] it is made. Allow me also to send you, (as the [new] ocean postage law is now so easy,) a copy of Mr. Burroughs's Notes, & some papers. And now, my dear sir, & with uninterested candor, you must just make what use, or no use at all of [all] [whatever] any thing I suggest or send, [entirely & select [?]] and [?] do as your own occasions call for. [[?] being yourself the [?] judge] [I dare say] Very likely some of my suggestions may have been anticipated.to W.M. Rossetti [sent] left N.Y. Nov. 23 '67. No 2 1/2[sent by steamer N.Y. Dec 4 '1867] probably left N.Y. Dec 7 Washington Dec. 3, 1867 My dear Mr. Rossetti: I have just received & have considered your letter of Nov. 17. In order that there be the frankest understanding with respect to my position, I hasten to write you that the authorization in my letter of Nov. 1st to Mr. Conway, for you, to make verbal alterations, substitute words, &c. was meant to be construed as an answer to the case presented in Mr. Conway's letter of Oct. 12. Mr. Conway stated the case of a volume of selections, in which it had been decided that the poems reprinted in London should appear verbatim, & asking my authority to change certain words in the preface to first edition of poems, &c. I will be candid with you, & say I had not the slightest idea of applying my authorization to a reprint of the full volume of my poems. As such a volume was not proposed, & as your courteous & honorable course & attitude called & call for no niggardly or hesitating response from me, I penned that authorization, & did not feel to set limits to it. But abstractly, & standing alone, & not read in connection with2 Mr. C's. letter of Oct. 12, I see now it is far too loose, & needs distinct guarding. I cannot & will not consent, of my own volition to countenance an expurgated edition of my pieces. I have steadily refused to do so here in my own country, even under seductive offers; & must not do so in another country. --I feel it due to myself to write you explicitly thus, my dear Mr. Rossetti, though it may seem harsh, & perhaps ungenerous. Yet I rely upon you to absolve me sooner or later. Could you see Mr. Conway's letter of Oct. 12, you would, I think, more fully comprehend the integrity of my explanation. I have to add that the points made in that letter, in relation to the proposed reprint, as originally designed, exactly correspond with those, on the same subject, in your late letter,--that the kind & appreciative tone of both letters is in the highest degree gratifying, [to me] & is most cordially & affectionately responded to by me--& that the fault of sending the loose authorization has surely been, to a large degree, my own. And now, my friend, having set myself right on that matter, I proceed to say, on the other hand, for you & for Mr. Hollen 3 that if, before the arrival of this letter, you have practically invested in & accomplished, or partially accomplished, any plan, even contrary to this letter, I do no expect you to abandon it, at loss of outlay, but shall, bona fide consider you blameless if you let it go on & be carried out as you may have arranged. It is the question of the authorization of an expurgated edition proceeding from me that deepest engages me. The fact of the different ways, one way or another way, in which the book may appear in England, out of influences not under the shelter of my umbrage, are of much less importance to me., After making the foregoing explanation, I shall, I think, accept kindly whatever happens. For I feel, indeed know, that I am in the hands of a friend, & that my pieces will receive that truest, brightest, of light & perception coming from love. In that, all other & lesser requisites become pale. It would be better, in any introduction to make no allusion to me as authorizing, or not prohibiting, &c. The whole affair is somewhat mixed, & I write off-hand to catch to-morrow's New York steamer--but I guess you will pick out my meaning. Probably indeed Mr. Hotten has preferred to go on after the original plan--which, if so, saves all trouble. 4 I have to add that I only wish you could know how deeply the beautiful personal tone & passages of your letter of Nov. 17. have penetrated & touched me. It is such things that go to our hearts, & reward us, & make up for all else, for years Permit me to offer you my friendship. I sent you hence, Nov. 23. a letter through Mr. Conway. Also a copy of Mr. Burroughs's Notes, Mr. O'Connor's pamphlet, & some papers containing criticisms on Leaves of Grass. Also. later, a prose article of mine, named Democracy, in a magazine. Let me know how the work goes on. What shape it takes, &c. Finally, I charge you to construe all I have written through my declared & fervid realization of your goodness to me, nobleness of intention, &, I am fain to hope, personal, as, surely, literary & moral sympathy & attachment. And so, for the present, farewell. Walt Whitman Attorney General's Office, OFFICIAL BUSINESS. Copy of letter sent to Mr. Rossetti, Dec. 3 probably went from N.Y. Dec. 7, '67 reaching England Dec 20 " No. 4LONDON. W.C. 12 DE 17 67 N YORK AM [?] 21 PAID Walt Whitman Washington U.S.A. Rossetti Dec. 16th '67 no answer No. 6CARRIER JAN [?] 1 DEL.a very small space between us while I read & re-read your letter. I read your paper on Democracy (received a few days ago) with great pleasure & interest. I have always felt--& did so markedly while our own recent Reform discussions were going on-- one main truth involved in your paper: That after one has said that such & such people or classes are not exactly fitted to make the best use of political enfranchisement one has said only a small part of the truth; the further point remaining that to induct people or classes into the combined 56 Euston Sq London, N.W. 16 Decr, Dear Mr. Whitman, The receipt of your letter of 3 Decr. this morning wd. have made me feel miserable were it not that before then the matter had already been set right, & my letter notifying that fact very nearly (no doubt) in your hands by this time. My first letter to you was written too much from the impulse of the moment; &, finding soon after fromthe publisher's statement that the original plan of the selection could not be altered, I felt that it was also much better it should not be altered. I congratulate myself therefore on being quite at one with you concerning that point. Not one syllable of any one of your poems, as presented in my selection will be altered or omitted: that is the first intention & final result. Pray believe me however that while I understood the latitude of your first letter honoured me with in its widest sense, I still meant to take all proper precautions before acting upon it. I wrote at once to Mr. Conway enquiring whether he put the same interpretation upon it; & his letter in reply (18 Novr. now before me) replies-- "I agree with you that Whitman's letter gives you all the liberty you cd. desire." I am now perfectly satisfied that it wd have been most undesirable for you to give or for me (even if given) to act upon such liberty. To be honoured by your friendship is as great a satisfaction & distinction as my life has presented or ever can present. I respond to it with all warmth & reverence, & the Atlantic seemednational life, & to constitute that life out of them along with all the classes, is an enormous gain. The consequence is that with the intensest respect & admiration for Carlyle, I find constantly that to acquiesce in the express views he takes of late years of particular questions wd. be simply to abnegate my own identity. The selection goes on smoothly tho not fast--the proofs now approaching their close. I suppose the volume will not fall much if at all short of 400 pp.--You may possibly have seen the advertisement of it repeated several times in publications here, as enclosed (slip cut from the Atheneum). The "Portrait' is a re-engraving (head & shoulders only, I believe) of the one in the first Leaves of Grass, wh. was a capital piece of art work. I have not yet seen the reproduction, but trust to find it adequately done. Always yours, W.M. Rossettireproduction of a good number of your poems, unaccompanied by the remainder. There is no curtailment or alteration whatever--& no modification at all except in these 3 particulars-- 1, I have given a note here & there: 2, I have thought it better, considering the difference of a selection from the sum total, to re-distribute the poems into 5 classes, which I have termed--Chants Democratic--[?] Drum Taps-- Walt Whitman--Leaves of Grass--Songs of Parting: 3, I have given titles to many poems wh. in your editions are merely headed with the words of the opening line. London-- 56 Euston Sq. N.W. 8 Decr. My dear Sir: Your letter of 22 Novr. reached me the other day thru' Mr. Conway. You no doubt will by this time have received the one I addressed to you 2 or 3 weeks ago; but perhaps it may occur to me to repeat here some things said in that letter. I think the most convenient course may be for me first to state the facts about my selection. Some while back--I supposebefore the middle of Septr.--Mr. Hotten the publisher told me that he projected bringing out a selection from your poems, & (in consequence of my review in the Chronicle) he asked whether I wd. undertake to make the selection, & write any such prefatory matter as I mt. think desirable. Proud to associate myself in any way with your writings, or to subserve their diffusion & appreciation here, I gladly consented. I at once re-read thro' your last complete edition, & made the selection. In doing this I was guided by two rules--1, to omit entirely every poem wh. contains passages or words wh. modern squeamishness can raise objection to--& 2, to include, from among the remaining poems, those wh. I most entirely & intensely admire. The bulk of poems thus selected is rather less than half the bulk of your complete edition; &, before my selection went to the printer's hands, I had the advantage of revising it by the corrected copy you sent some while ago to Mr. Conway. I also added the prose Preface to Leaves of Grass--obtaining thro Mr. Conway your permission to alter (or rather, as I have done, simply to omit) 2 or 3 phrases in that Preface (only). Thus my selection is a verbatimas of the printing arrangements, which of the two shall eventually appear. In making my selection, I preserved all (I believe all) the larger figures dividing the pieces into separate passages or sections, but did not preserve the numbers of the stanzas, --the separation of stanzas, however, continuing as in your edition. I am sorry now that I did not meet your preference in this respect, & that the printing has already proceeded too far for me to revert to the small numbers now. My wish was to get rid of anything of a merely external kind wh. ordinary readers wd call peculiar or eccentric. Parrot-like repetitions [*2-92-218.2B*] The selection being thus made, I wrote a Prefatory Notice & Dedicatory Letter; & then consigned the whole affair to the publisher & printer, somewhere in the earlier days of October. My prefatory matter, & something like a third (I suppose) of the poems, were in print before your letter of 1 Nov., addressed to Mr. Conway, reached me; & now the Preface to Leaves of Grass is also in print, & I fancy the whole thing [out] ought to be completed & out by Xmas, or very soon after. The letter wh. I wrote you on receipt of yours of 1 Nov. said that I was about to consult thepublisher as to dropping the mere selection, & substituting a complete edition, only with slight verbal modifications. This however the publisher proved unwilling to do, the selection bring so far advanced, advertized, &c. Therefore the selection will come out exactly as first put together; & on reflection this pleased me decidedly better. I now proceed to reply to the details of your letter of 22 Novr. If any blockhead chooses to call my selection "an expurgated edition," that lie shall be on his own head, not mine. My Prefatory Notice explains my principle of selection to exactly the same effect as given in this present letter; & contains moreover a longish passage affirming that, if such freedom of speech as you adopt were denied to others, all great literature of the whole world wd. be castrated or condemned. The form of title-page wh. you propose wd. of course be adopted by me with thanks & without a moment's debate, were it not that my own title-page was previously in print. I enclose a copy. I trust you may see nothing in it to disapprove--as much the same as your own model. However I have already written to the publisher, suggesting that he shd decide, according to the convenienceof that charge have been too numerous already. I need scarcely assure you that that most glorious poem on Lincoln is included in my selection. It shall appear with your title "President Lincoln's Funeral Hymn." I had previously given it a title of my own, "Nocturn for the Death of Lincoln"; & in my Prefatory Notice it is alluded to under that title. A note of explanation shall be given. I await with impatience the receipt of your paper on Democracy. It will find in me no reluctant hearer, as I have always been a democratic republican, & hope to live & die faithful to themeanings of that glorious creed. The other printed matter you have so kindly sent me I received two evenings back from Mr. Conway. The newspaper articles are new to me: with the publications of Mr. O'Connor & Mr. Burroughs I was already familiar, & I entertain a real respect for those publications & their writers. Believe me, I am grateful to you for your kindness in these matters, & for the indulgent eye with which you look upon a project which perhaps, after all, you wd. rather had never been entered upon. I am in some hopes that your indulgence will not be diminished when you see what the selection itself actually looks like. In consequence of the correspondence wh. has passed since the selection was made, I may possibly find occasion to add a brief P.S: it shall contain nothing you cd. object to. If the selection aids the general body of English poetical readers to understand that there really is a great poet across he Atlantic, & to demand a complete & unmutilated edition, my desires connected with the selection will be accomplished. Believe me, dear Sir, with the deepest respect, Yours, W.M. Rossetti.LONDON. N.W. 12 DE 9 67 42 Walt Whitman Washington U.S.A. N YORK [?] DEC 22 AM No. 5CARRIER DEC 23 7 P.M. 2-92-218-2D1868 56 Euston Sq. London, N.W. 12 April Dear Mr. Whitman, I received with thanks, & read with much interest, the article by Mr. Hinton wh. you sent me. Besides Mr. Hinton's own share in the article, I was particularly glad to see in full Emerson's letter written on the first appearance of Leaves of Grass. Of this I had hitherto only seen an expression or two extracted. Will you allow me to respond by sending two English notices of the selection. The one in Academia I find is written by a Mr. Robertson whom I have met occasionally--a Scotchman of acute intellectual sympathies. The alterations noted in ink in his article are reproduced by me from the copy wh. hehimself sent me: I infer that they are in conformity with the original M.S., but cut out by a less ardent Editor. The Sunday Times is edited by a Mr. Knight, of whom also I have some slight personal knowledge: I think the review in that paper is likely done by Mr. Knight himself. The Academia is a recently-started paper, chiefly scholastic, & I suppose of restricted circulation. The Sunday Times has no doubt a very large circulation, & a good standing among weekly newspapers --not being however a specially literary organ. You will, I think, have seen thro' Mr. Conway the notice, also eulogistic, in the London Review. I am told of a hostile one in the Express (evening edition of Daily News) [Daily News], but have not seen it: the morning Star (the paper most closely connected with John Bright) had a very handsome notice about a week ago--but, like all literary reviews in that paper a brief one. These are all the notices I know of at present. Perhaps I ought to apologize for saying as much to you about a matter wh. I know plays but the smallest part in your thoughts & interests as a poet. As to the sale of the book I really known nothing as yet--not having once seen the publisher since the volume was issued. A glance at the Sunday Times notice recalls to my attention a sentence therein wh. I shd. perhaps refer to--about your having given express sanction &c. Where the writer gets this from I know not--certainly not from me: indeed the P.S. to the selection asserts the exact contrary, & I have not so much as seen Mr. Knight for (I dare say) a couple of years. With warmest regard & friendship, Yours W.M. RossettiThis will be size larger POEMS BY WALT WHITMAN SELECTED AND EDITED BY WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI Or si sa il nome, o per tristo o per buono, E si sa pur al mondo ch'io ci sono. MICHELANGELO. LONDON: JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCADILLY. 1868. Washington December 9, 1889 Dear Mr. Rossetti, Your letter of last summer to William O'Connor with the [copies] passages transcribed from a lady's correspondence, have been shown me by him, & a copy lately furnished me, which I have just been re-reading, [again]. I am [deeply] deeply touched [by very deeply] by [sy] these sympathies & convictions, coming from a [woman] woman, & from England, & am sure that if the lady knew how much comfort it [is] has been to me to [know] get [such things] these, she would not only pardon you for [sen] transmitting them to Mr. O'Connor, but approve that action. [- I wish to say that I realize that I hitherto have had no eulogizing so magnificent for] as [to be] [responded [opeder rear] to] I realize indeed [of] emphatic and they [these they distrust, and] smiling Well done from my heart & conscience of a [real] true wife & mother. [From the he heart & conscience, and] & one too whose sense of the poetic, as I glean from your letter, [arises out flows must as must flows] after [coming] flows through [thoug] [those] the hearts & conscience, [qualities, and through] must also [come satisfy] come through & satisfy science, as [through] much as the esthetic, that I [have] had hitherto [had] received no eulogism so magnificent.[Wishing] I send by same mail with this, same address as this letter, two photographs, taken within a few months. One [of the pictures,] is intended for the lady, [& one for please if she will &] (if I may be permitted to send it her) - [and one] - and will you please accept the other, with my respects & love? - The [photograph] picture is by some crticised very severely indeed, but I hope you will not dislike it, for I [m] [myself] confess [mys] myself to a [sly] perhaps capricious fondness for [W] it, as [a] my own portrait, [of myself] over some scores [of my various portraits] that have been [done] made or taken [or made] at one time or another I am still employed in the Attorney General's office [here]. My p.o. address remains the same. I am quite well & hearty. [I am lazily I] My new editions considerably expanded with [my ed] what suggestions &c I have to offer, [getting] presented I hope [into] in more definite form will probably [be in] get printed [the] the coming spring.copy Attorney General's Office Washington 18[*Circular sent to all U. S. Attorneys in the U. S.*] [*Rec.*] Attorney General's Office, Washington, Nov. 27, 1869 Sir: Whenever any suit is carried to the Supreme Court of the United States by writ of error or appeal, from any Court in your District, in which the United States are a party, or are directly interested, or in which you have been requested to appear for any officer of the United States, who is a party, by the head of any Department, or of any Bureau in any Department, you are requested to give notice to that effect to this office as soon as the appeal is allowed, or the writ of error sued cut, and to send to this office a copy of your brief, and such a statement of the case as will enable the Attorney General to ascertain as conveniently as possible what the questions at issue will be in the Supreme Court; and if the writ of error is sued out or the appeal taken by you, the the transcript of the record should be sent either to this office or to the Clerk of the Supreme Court, and, in the latter case, a notice should, at the same time, be sent to the Attorney General that it has been sent to the Clerk of the Court. These precautions are necessary in order that the Attorney General may certainly know what the suits are in which he is expected to appear before the Supreme Court. Very respectfully, E. R. Hoar, Attorney General. United States Attorney, [*Letter to Rossetti Dec 9, 1869.*] [*See notes May 27 1888*]I shall [send] forward you early copies. I send my love to Moncure Conway. I wish he would write to me if you see him. [If] If the pictures dont come, or get injured on the way, I will [send] try again by express. I wish you to loan [or give] this letter to the lady, or, if she wishes it, give it to her to keep.see notes June 26th 1888 LONDON. W.C. 2 JA 10 70 Walt Whitman Washington - D.C. U.S.A. from W M Rossetti Jan: 187010 1/2 _______ 730 36 _______ 766 [?] one col 1/2 page 28 7 1/4 ________ 196 7 ________ 203 on a sheet56 Euston Sq. London, N.W. 9 Jany. /70 Dear Mr. Whitman, I was exceedingly pleased at [?] receiving your recent letter, & the photograph wh. followed it immediately afterwards. I I admire the photograph very much; rather grudge its having the hat on, & so cutting one out of the full portraiture of your face, but have little doubt, allowing for this detail, it brings me very near your external aspect. May I be allowed to send you, as a very meagre requital, the enclosed likeness of myself. I gave your letter, & the second copy of your portrait to the lady you refer to, & need scarcely say how truly delighted she was. She has asked me to say that youcd. not have devised for her a more welcome pleasure, & that she feels grateful to me for having sent to America the extracts from what she had written, since they have been a satisfaction to you. She also begs leave, with much deference, to offer a practical suggestion:--that if you see no reason against it, the new edition might be issued in 2 vols. lettered, not vols. 1 & 2, but 1st. series & 2nd. series, so that they cd. be priced & sold separately when so desired. She adds: "This simple expedient wd., I think, overcome a serious difficulty. Those who are not able to receive aright all Mr. Whitman has written might, to their own infinite gain, have what they can receive, & now by means of that food to be capable of the whole perhaps; while he wd. stand as unflinchingly as hitherto by what he has written. I know I am glad that your selections were put into my hands first, so that I was lifted up by them to stand firm on higher ground than I had ever stood on before, & furnished with a golden key before approaching the rest of the poems." She also, as a hearty admirer of your original Preface, hopes that that may re-appear--either whole or such portions as have not since been used in other forms. I know, by a letter from O'Connor that, since you wrote, you have seen the further observations of this lady wh. I sent over in Novr. I replied to O'Connor the other day: also, still more recently, took the liberty of posting to you a little essay of mine, written for one of our literary societies, on "Italian Courtesy-books" of the middle ages. Some of the extracts I have translated in it may, I hope, be found not without their charm & value. I wrote to Conway giving him your cordial message: probably you know that he was not long ago in Russia. Also I heard the other day from a man I am much attached to, Stillman, of his having encountered you in Washington. As he told you, there is a chance--not as yet more than a chance--that I may make my way over the Atlantic for a brief glimpse of America in the summer. If so, how great a delight it will be to me to see & knowyou need not, I hope, be stated in words. Perhaps before that I shall have received here the new edition you refer to--another deep draught of satisfaction. I cd. run on a great deal further on these & other topics; but shd. have to come a close at last somewhere, & may perhaps as well do so now. Yours in reverence & love, W.M. Rossettisee notes May 10 1888 LONDON. W.C. 1 JY 10 71 Walt Whitman Washington--D.C. U.S.A. Rossetti July 9 '71CARRIER JUL 24 7 PM56 Euston Sq. London, N.W. 9 July/71 Dear Mr. Whitman, I was much obliged to you for the kind thought of sending me your fine verses on the Parisian catastrophe. My own sympathy (far unlike that of most Englishmen) was very strongly with the Commune--i.e. with extreme, democratic, & progressive republicanism, against a semi-republicanism wh. may at any momentmoment (& will, if the ultras don't make the attempt too dangerous) degenerate into some form of monarchy exhibiting more or less of the accustomed cretinism. I fancy that, unless some one sends it you from here, you may probably not see an article on your position as a poet lately published in the Westminster Review. I therefore take the liberty of posting this article to you. I don't know who has written it: but incline to think the writer must be Edward Dowden, Professor of English Literature in Trinity College, Dublin--a young man who no doubt has a good literary career before him. He is at any rate, I know, one of your most earnest admirers. Lately he delivered at the College a lecture on your poems, with much applause I am told: & the same week some one else in Dublin delivered another like lecture. There are various highly respected references also to your poetry in a work here, "Our Living Poets," by Forman (dealing directly with English poets only). You may perhaps be awarethat the Westminster Review is a quarterly, forwarded by Jeremy Bentham, & to this day continuing to be the most advanced of the English reviews as regards liberal politics & speculation. I trust Mr. O'Connor is well: wd. you please to remember me to him if opportunity offers. Believe me with reverence & gratitude Your friend, W.M. Rossetti.see notes Dec 24 1888 LONDON. N.W. 7 OC 9 71 Walt Whitman Washington--D.C. U.S.A. Rossetti Oct. 8CARRIER OCT 23 8 AM56 Euston Sq. London, N.W. 8 Octr. Dear Mr. Whitman, I was extremely obliged to you for the present of your photograph & books; the vol. of poems containing (what I now read for the first time in that shape) the important section of Passage to India, & many modifications here & there in other compositions. It happens that I have lately been compiling a vol. of selections from American Poets, & I had had to use your earlier editions forthe purposes of this compilation: but I have now set those aside, & used your new edition throughout --so the kind & welcome gift came to me at a very apposite moment. I confess to a certain reluctance to lose the old title "A Voice out of the Sea" of that most splendid poem (rated by most of your English admirers, I observe, as the finest of all, tho I am not prepared to acquiesce in that estimate): however, in this as all other respects where the editions differ, I have followed your new edition. Many thanks also for the separate poem subsequently received "After all, not to create only"--replete with important truths.--I don't well know when my "American Selection" will be out: my work on it is done, & the rest depends on the printer & publisher. I shall hope to beg your acceptance of a copy in due course. I sent on the copy of your works transmitted for "The Lady", after some little delay occasioned by my being absent from England up to the end of August. She was (& I think still is) in the country: but, to judge from a letter of acknowledgment she wrote me, you have probably by this time heard from her direct. I know also that you have heard from Prof. Dowden, the writer of the articleticle in the Westminster. Mr. Burroughs called here on 5 Octr., & is to dine with us tomorrow: I like his frank, manly aspect & tone, & need not say that you were a principal subject of conversation between us. He seems very considerably impressed with the objects & matters of interest in London: I wish it might be my good fortune to see you here also some day. Rumours of your projected arrival here have been rife for some while past, but, as I learn from Burroughs, the prospect is as yet not a very definite one. Believe me Most respectfully your friend, W.M. Rossetti.1875 56 Euston Sq. N.W. 24 March. Dear Mr. I received your letter with much pleasure. The facts about Whitman are briefly these. He lives with his brother, & is (I hope & believe) free from any real pinch of poverty, but he has little or nothing of his own, & the American public continues to reject his books. He sent me over, for republication in England, an American newspaper notice setting forth in strong terms the unfavourable side of his position: this I got published in the Atheneum of 11 March. Buchanan saw it there, & sent his letter to the Daily News, followed (14 March) by another letter of mine - wh. I infer you have not seen It said that a friend & I had already written to Whitman bespeaking various copies of his forthcoming books; that I had then asked Wh. whether he wd. like me to find a similar or any other scheme among his admirers here; & that I was (& still I am) awaiting his reply. Since my. D.N. letter several people have written to me offering to buy the books, or [br] subscribe money: about £ 25 altogether: & Buchanan has received other similar offers. I did not see the article in the Standard: there was a very offensive one (not so however to me personally) in last Saturday Review. I write frequently about these matters to Wh - shall apprise him of your letter. When I receive his reply, I shall know exactly what - or whether anything - further shd. be done. With best regards Very truly yours, W.M. RossettiLONDON. W.C. 3 AP 14 75 LONDON. W.C. 3 AP 14 75 Walt Whitman Camden New Jersey U.S.A. W.M. Rossetti April 14, '7556 Euston Sq. London, N.W. 14 April Dear Mr. Whitman, I am always proud to receive any scrap of your handwriting, & pleased as well: tho' the pleasure was a somewhat melancholy one yesterday, owing to the far from favourable account wh. you give of yourself. It seems a singularly perverse arrangement of Nature (but you are not the man to complain of her) that you, with your exceptionally rigorous mould, & still hardly beginning to be anelderly man, shd be subject to so lingering as well as severe an attack. Believe that you have in this country some most sincere sympathizers, to whom news of your complete recovery wd. be among the very best news that they cd hear I look forward with great interest to your profound volume of prose & verse. The last thing I saw of yours was that temperate & discriminating but yet hearty (or it wd not be yours) estimate of Burns. I put something about it into a literary weekly review I write in, The Academy. [It] This was copied into some (I dare say numerous) English papers; & one Editor wrote asking what was the American paper in wh your remarks had been printed, as he wished to look them up, & reprint them in full-- wh. has probably been done ere now. I shall now put into the Academy the substance of your last note, & of the article in The New Republic. Symonds therein mentioned (at least I suppose it is the same Symonds) entered years ago into a correspondence with me, on the sole basis of his great admiration of your poems. Clifford is regarded as a shining light among our youngermen of science, very bold in his tone of thought. I forget what the date may have been when I last wrote to you: More shame to me perhaps, as showing that it must at any rate have been a long while ago. Perhaps it may even have been before May 1873. In that [year] month I went to Italy on a short trip with some friends, one of them being the daughter, whom I had known from childhood, of one of my oldest intimates Ford Madox Brown (a distinguished historical painter - She herself being also a painter of no small attainment). Before we came back from the trip, we had resolved that we had better part no more, & in March 1874 we married. My wife is greatly interested in you & what concerns you, & bids me not fail to say that she "admires you as much as I do." I remember that her sister, then perhaps barely 17 years of age, seemed more fascinated with your poems, when my selection of them came out towards 1868, then with any other poetical work she had ever seen. She also is an able painter--now married to Dr. Hueffer, a German learned in musical & other matters, who has of late contributed some musical articles to the N.Y. Tribune. There was also a brother, Oliver Madox Brown, whoshowed a singular extent of genius, both as painter & as writer: a romance of his, Gabriel Denver, was published in 1873, & his other remaining writings will probably soon be issued, Unfortunately he died Novr. last of pyemia, aged less than 20. Many a time I have heard him refer to your writings in an enthusiastic spirit. Last month I for the first time in my I life faced a public audience (in Birmingham) to deliver a lecture--on Shelley: I found myself less unfitted for the task than I had apprehended. It was a written lecture. There must be a great satisfaction in addressing a large audience, for one who can speak wholly or almost extempore, & who feels the magnetic personal thrill between his hearers & himself. You, I think, have on various occasions experienced this pleasure. This afternoon I shall l be seeing one of the interesting old men surviving from a fast generation--Trelawney, the friend of Shelley & Byron. He has always been a wonderful strong man, in all senses of the word: & now, well past 80, he wears no under-clothing & no great coat, bathes constantly in cold water & in the sea, prefers to dispenses with stockings as he sits at home slipperedslippered--&c. He has been in all parts of the world--N. & S. America included: always markedly temperate-- even in his youth, when the contrary habit was universally prevalent here. I hope I have not wearied you with this talk. At all events believe me to be always Yours with affection, W.M. Rossetti Have you wholly relinquished the idea of visiting Europe? Envelope addressed by walt whitman to Wm. Michael Rossetti, April 17, 1875. The letter in #666, Vol 2., p. 327, Correspondence of Walt Whitman. The whereabouts of the letter is not known.Charles E. Feinberg 872 West Boston Boulevard Detroit 2, MichiganCAMDEN APR 17 N.J. Wm Mich'l Rossetti 56 Euston Sq London NW EnglandWalt Whitman The American Poet56 Euston Sq. London, N.W. 23 Decr. /75 Dear Mr. Whitman, It was a great pleasure to me to see your handwriting (letter of 19 Oct.) --likewise to make the acquaintance of Mr. Marvin, whom we all found most pleasant & sensible. The only disappointment was his short sojourn over here: for, as soon as he had called on us with your letter (wh. was about 1 Dec., I think) he went over to Paris & then after returning &dining with us, another day or two saw him on his way homeward across the Atlantic. I dare say he has told you (if opportunity served) something about the evening he passed with us & a few friends--good Whitmanites most of them. Let me see whether I can remember the names. Mr. Marvin took down to dinner our dear & admirable friend Mrs. Gilchrist (who lately lost her mother, aged more than 90, & expects to see her eldest son happily married pretty soon): I found Mr. M. was not aware (& perhaps you are not) that Mrs. G. is the widow of a literary man of some name, Alex Gilchrist, author of the Life of the great ideal painter-poet Wm. Blake, & of the Life of the painter Etty: he died young of scarlet fever in 1861. Next Mr. M. was Jos. Knight, Editor of the Sunday Times, theatrical critic of the Atheneum, &c: a man of excellent critical capacity, who knows your value. Then Miss Mathilde Blind, step- daughter of the German revolutionist of 1848, a woman of singular ability & independence of mind, & a most earnest believer in the author of Leaves of Grass. Next, Justin McCarthy, one of the foremost writers in the Daily News, & a novelist of much talent: he has been more than once in America--also his wife. Then my father-in-law MadoxMadox Brown the historical painter, & his wife. Lastly E.W. Gosse & his wife: the former a poet of these more recent years, who has done some graceful things, & has much knowledge & good perception as a critic: Mrs. Gosse was lately Miss Ellen Epps, belonging to a family of medical homeopathists, & is herself a painter of no ordinary talent. Her sister married a painter of European fame, Alma-Tadema, a Dutchman now naturalized in England.--But perhaps I am peppering my letter with a lot of details that are not much to your purpose. Mr. Marvin informed me that your works, in their various forms, are in the Congressional LibraryLibrary at Washington, but not any vol. of Selections,& that he wd. like to see the latter added to the series: so, not having a new copy at hand, I delivered to him my own (not yet shabby) copy of the Selections, & he will present it to the Library. My father-in-law has, I know, ordered the publishers (Tinsley Brothers) to send a copy of the Literary Remains of his son, just published: the youthful author died rather more than a year ago. I think the book will present to you evidences of uncommon faculty. You will see on the title page the names of myself & of F. Hueffer (husband of my wife's half-sister) as editors. The Memoir however is written principally by the father. I was very glad to see you attended the Edgar Poe celebration from wh. other men who ought to have been presented were blameably (I shd. say) absent: & I read with great interest your printed remarks regarding Poe's genius. To me he has always been a fascinating writer--not of course that I am blind to his blemishes & perversities: the poem named To Annie is, I think, great--even deserving preference above The Raven. I cd. say a good deal more, but occupations press, & I want to get this off (28 Dec now) without further delay. Believe how warmly I & others in this county, near or not so near to me, feel regarding you. Are you ever to come to my land? & if so wd. you not house with us for some portion at least of your sojourn? Yours always, W.M. RossettiRossetti 23d Dec. '75W.M. Rossetti. Feb. 11 '76. I send you the [following] enclosed, & ask the favor of you if convenient to see whether the article would be available for the Academy--(or any where else, if you should think preferable) --I want pay for it --should be satisfied [if] with 25, or 30, I am getting along much the same. My new book wont be out yet for a month-- also sent Man-of-War-birdWalt Whitman 431 Stevens St. cor West Camden New Jersey U.S.A. Rossetti Feb. 28 '76 ans March 1756 Euston Sq. N.W. 28 Febr. Dear Whitman (If you will permit me to drop the "Mr.")--I write in some haste. Yours of 26 Jan. & 11 Feb. received. Ever since we in England heard that your health had received a serious shock, we have had it much at heart, I assure you, to testify our love, respect & gratitude, in some tangible shape: I cd. at this moment tell you of at least 3 several plans wh. were actively mooted, &partly started. Our ideas on the subject have shifted according to the varying accounts that reached us, more especially with regard to the material comforts of your present mode of life. As the extract wh. you send me from the West Jersey Press, & wh. you vouch for as less strong then the facts, proves that some more cheerful preceding accounts were not accurate, there are some of us who wd. really be glad to exert ourselves to the extent of our moderate means, to prove that we are not insensible of the obligations we owe you. Profr. Dowden of Dublin, & myself, have more especially been in frequent written communication on this subject, & if I hear from you in terms to warrant my so doing, I shall call the attention of others to the subject. Meanwhile Mrs. Gilchrist & I agreed on the 25th that we wd. at once ask you to oblige each of us with copies of your forthcoming books to the value of £5 (25 dollars, I believe this is) each. This morning I saw about getting the requisite letter of credit for the amount, {pound sign} 10, & it will no doubt be procured & transmitted to you very shortly. I cd. not find any suitable locality nearer than New York mentioned in the Bank documents.--Mrs. G. wd. wish her books to be copies of the Two RivuletsRivulets only: I shd. wish for the Two Rivulets, & also the forthcoming edition of your poems, in whatever proportions may be most convenient, & suitable for making up the £ 5. I sent the substance of the West Jersey Press article to the Academy, but regret to find the Editor not forward to publish it: if he fails, I will send it elsewhere. Will also lose no time in offering for publication the poem & prose-matter of wh. you forwarded to me--& both I read with great interest. I trust I may succeed in all these points Arthur Clive (so Dowden informedinformed me long ago) is really Standish O'Grady, an [leading] Irish barrister of good position (or good prospects, I forget which). As it happens, I have not yet seen his article. With love Yours W.M. Rossetti Dowden has mentioned to me your "Autograph Edition," but without defining what it is, nor do I precisely know. It sounds tempting, so I hope Mrs. Gilchrist & I may come in foe some specimen of it.