Feinberg/Whitman General Correspondence Wallace, J. W. May 1887 - Feb. 1891 Box 18 Folder 3Dear Walt, In no less familiar or colder terms can we bring ourselves to address you, the most loved of friends, though such a salutation from strangers to anyone but yourself would seem an impertinence. We, two friends chiefly united by our common love of you, wish to congratulate you on your birthday and express to you personally our very best wishes and love. To you we owe not only affection but endless gratitude and reverence. One of us, a doctor, owes you entirely his spiritual enfranchisement & deliverance from soul-benumbing scepticism, into which, not without pain, he had gradually fallen. Your books are his constant companions, his spiritual nourishment, his continual study and delight. And not least of his debts to you is 'the glory' you have shewn him, "in his daily walk and trade" which you have ennobled and made beautiful for him. The writer in many obstructions & difficulties is strengthened and comforted by your example and words. In past heavy bereavement (of a mother to whom he has often mentally applied the words you use of yours) your words have best tallied his deepest experience and hopes. For years he has been, and is, a lover and grateful student of Carlyle and, in turn, of Ruskin. He has also, on theother hand been long familiar with Emerson and reveres his memory. But your teaching, far more than Emerson's, has appealed to him as the fitting offset to and complement of theirs, and as a veritable "Gospel" bringing "glad tidings of great joy." We both study your writings as much as possible and glean every help that critiques and notices can give. We endeavor to assimilate them in our lives and try to introduce them to others. We occasionally call friends together in your name to spend "a Whitman evening," to read your books and talk about them. We shall not fail to do so on the 31st, and shall rejoice to believe that you know it and that there is a real communion between us though far sundered. We are anxious to have the pleasure of giving you some little tangible [proof] token of our love. We do not know what else to send you, so venture to ask you to accept a money present of £10. It will be a lifelong pleasure to us to feel that we have thus been in personal communication with you and that something you hold has been supplied by us. Hoping you will do us this favour, and wishing you long continued health and strength. We are, Yours gratefully and affectionately John Johnston MD J. W. Wallace 54 Manchester Road Bolton 14 Eagle St -- May 18th/871 14 Eagle St. Haulgh Bolton 21 May/89 Dear Walt Whitman, Your two Bolton friends and admirers, J. Johnston & J. W. Wallace, again unite in sending you their love and best wishes on your Birthday. We are very thankful to have within our power the means of again communicating with you, and of sending you a small token of our deep and continued reverence & affection. Since our last letter your "November Boughs" has 2 appeared -- of which we each immediately procured a copy. And not the least of the pleasures it gave us was the admirable portrait of yourself on the frontispiece. Every line of the book has been carefully read -- most of it again + again -- + has increased the heavy debt we owe you. We feel, too, in reading its closing lines that, besides your other great services to humanity, you, too, like Elias Hicks, like George Fox, have "labored", and "made contributions" to, and "best of all set an incarnated example" of life spent in the constant "thought of God, merged in the thoughts of3 moral right and the immortality of identity." -- But your contributions have been far greater, and of immeasurably wider scope than theirs, inasmuch as they go along with a vastly increased intellectual power and range, and are "consistent with the Hegelian formulas, and consistent with modern science." By these immense services in these our times, and especially in your contributions to the "thought of the immortality of identity," you have enrolled yourself for ever amongst those who, you justly say, are "dearest to humanity,"" -- and are inexpressibly dear to us. We hope that the remainder of your life may 4 be serene and calm, and cheered by the ardent love and gratitude of those who, like us, are so deeply indebted to you. We each send you £5 which we should like you to expend in some visible token of our good will. We also enclose 2 photos. 1st - one of J. Johnston -- taken for presentation to the members of an ambulance class, of which he was the teacher, and who gave him the writing cabinet shown on the table. 2nd J. W. Wallace in his own little room, photographed by J. Johnston some months ago. It isn't a good portrait, but it may1 Anderton, near Chorley. Lancashire, England 2. Jany. 1890 Dear Walt Whitman, This morning I received a letter from Dr. Johnston, enclosing a copy of a post card he received from you yesterday & dated Decbr 19th. I note especially your statements about yourself ("poorly enough today" &c) 2 your message of love to us both, & your assurance that "all letters" &c are "welcomed." So I set myself tonight to write to you again, though briefly ~ and would that I could do more! It grieves me very much to hear of your continued illness. I wish with all my heart that the remainder of your life3 might be entirely free from pain and suffering. But, doubtless, there is good in these things too. They are painful to flesh & blood, but their value must be all the greater & deeper. It seems to me that in my own life I have found it so. As Burns sings in another connection: -- "Though losses & crosses Be lessons right severe, There's wit there, ye'll get there, & ye'll find nae itherwhere." 4 But it is not only to the sufferer that the lesson comes, but to others also, (perhaps to them most), in loving pity & sympathy. How much I owe to my mothers sufferings I cannot tell. And, surely, all your friends & lovers must feel as we do, all the more deeply drawn to you in your weakness, & all the more receptive to the good influences of your work & life. May God be with you & come nearer to you, in your sufferings & trials!5 It is the time of our New Year's holiday here. As I have been in indifferent health for a long time past, I am spending it quietly at home. The weather, yesterday & today, has been much warmer (thawing) with clear, bright sunshine, but getting a little gloomy as the day advances. This afternoon I took a solitary walk in the beautiful country round the village of Rivington, near 6 here. (Very small, old fashioned village, a dozen houses, old church & chapel & school (& stocks!) beautiful, unsophisticated country round.) I took "Leaves of Grass" with me, & read in it as I rambled along the lanes & field paths ~ with loving thoughts of you & deep gratitude for the loving kindness & benefits with which you have enriched my life. A peace, as of heaven, brooded over the silent landscape, & above the mottled cloudlets was a further heaven of tenderest blue & drifting films of pearly cloud.7 Last Sunday I received from Dr. J. the copy you sent him of "The Engineering Record" with your affectionate notice of your brother. I have read it over several times, & tried to gain as complete an idea as possible of the brother you must have loved so well, ~& with a half paternal affection & pride: -- (noble & upright ~ good natured plain & friendly ~ and a loving brother to your through 57 years of life.) -- I am deeply sorry that you have lost him, & that he has not survived you, as might have 8 been wished. (Though it is a happier arrangement for him.) And I am "wae" to think of his daughter, left so sadly alone. -- But, as you wrote long ago, -- "There is a text, -- 'God doeth all things well,' -- the meaning of which, in due time, appears to the soul." May God bless you through the New Year on which we have entered, & through life. With loving sympathy & reverent gratitude, I remain always Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace P. S. Are there any portraits of your brother to be had?1 Anderton m Chorley 27. June 1890 Dear Walt Whitman, Dr. Johnston & I yesterday received the papers and book you kindly sent us, & thank you from our inmost hearts. We have read the reports of the Celebration of your Birthday, and are especially pleased to note that your health is better than a recent newspaper paragraph stated. The "Celebration" itself ~ like its predecessors ~ notwithstanding 2 the presence of such men as Dr. Bucke & Dr. Brinton ~ seems to us to have been very inadequate. But in 300 years from now men will appreciate you better as they have learned to appreciate Bruno. I am delighted to have the little book on Bruno. Its intrinsic interest is very great to one who loves the memory of the great thinker. And my interest in him was freshened only 3 months ago by an excellent article in the "Atlantic." But I am3 especially proud to receive it as a present from you. And now we have a further & still greater favour to ask from you! Dr. Johnston has been unwell of late and has been advised to take a sea voyage. So he proposes to visit America. He will sail from Liverpool on Wednesday next (2nd July) per S. S. "British Prince" to Philadelphia & will cross over at once to Camden in the hope of seeing you. If you are sufficiently well, & it is otherwise convenient to you, 4 will you kindly honour him with a short interview? If you can do so he will esteem it the most memorable privilege of his life. He proposes to go from Camden to Long Island (perhaps, if possible, visiting Timber Creek first) to visit West Hills and some of the places associated with your early life, to spend most of his brief holiday there. Thence to New York and Brooklyn, where he will hunt up some of the places you mention in "Specimen Days," & will call5 upon Mr. Rome, your old friend & publisher, & a distant relative of his own. Then a flying visit to a relative in Canada before returning. --- This, briefly, is his programme: --- to take the voyage prescribed, and during the fortnight or so permitted him ashore, to see you, & some of the places you have told us of. It will be a life-long pleasure to us both if you can see him -- though only for a few minutes - & perhaps advise him in one 6 or two points as to the places he proposes to visit. With all the best wishes & with gratitude & love always, --- Dr. Johnston joining me - I remain Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace Walt Whitman 328, Mickle St. Camden New Jersey US America1 Anderton Chorley England. 18 Aug. 1890. Dear Walt Whitman, Dr. Johnston arrived at home on Friday the 8th inst. , as he will have told you. On Monday, the 11th, (my birthday) he came to see me and gave me the ~ presents you sent me: viz the two books ~ ("Passage to India" & "As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free") and the magnificent photograph of yourself ~ (Since borrowed2 by him for a copy, as arranged with you). I cannot tell you how much I prize them ~ especially the latter. Carlyle's heart was not stirred more deeply by the friendship and gifts of Goëthe than mine is by yours ~ nor, indeed, I think, nearly so much. I have thought it a sufficient, and, indeed, a great and sacred privilege to write to you at all, and 3 to shew you some slight beginnings, even here, of the immense influence your work is destined to have, and of the deep personal love and reverence towards yourself, which must always accompany it, and which millions will yet share. And I have felt it a duty, as well as a privilege, to shew my gratitude to you and to cheer you (so far as might be) by some expression of all this.4 But I never dreamed of receiving such returns! Fitly, indeed! and with a full heart, may I "hang up your picture as that of the tenderest lover, the friend the lover's portrait, of whom his friend his lover is fondest." -- It shall adorn my room as long as I live, -- reminding me daily of you, of your work and life, of your great ~ benefactions to me personally through your books ~ and 5 to how many besides! ~ and (not least) of the consecrating friendship with which you have crowned them, and of the tender, thoughtful courtesy and noble kindness which you have shewn me. I trust it may also prove a daily incentive to emulation of your great qualities. For your goodness to me ~ like all the good gifts of life ~ carries with it its own deep obligations. And these I feel to be --- to live as one worthy of6 your friendship, and to help on, so far as I can, your influence and work. It awakens in me an old purpose, which circumstances have for the last few years thwarted and almost crushed. Five years ago (last January) my mother died. (You, too, know well what that means! --- though I doubt if even you can have sounded so deeply ~ as many exceptionally painful 7 circumstances led me to sound ~ the unfathomable depths of a mothers tender, self-sacrificing love. --- And the circumstances of her death, beautiful & sacred, affected me infinitely more, and were a far deeper revelation to my soul than any literature ~ even yours.) In the revision of my purposes and aims that followed, one fixed project with me was to contribute to current literature on account of your work that should include one or two things that have not yet been said ~ at any rate, not with sufficient8 clearness and emphasis. But many untoward circumstances (partly resulting in & including mental and nervous break down & exhaustion) have prevented me from attempting this, and I see no prospect now of carrying out my plan for a long time to come. -- But I trust that the time will come, when, perhaps, I shall be all the better fitted for it by the long delay. --- At any rate "my purpose holds," and as a the old painter (quoted by Emerson) once said, not 9 irreverently --- "By God, it is in me, and shall out of me!" In the meantime I have led some of my friends to know you and to love you. Dr. Johnston being one of the first. And it is your influence mainly that has made our little society of friends what it was lately described as being ~ "the truest band of brothers" the speaker had "ever met with." (It has been very pleasant to me to note how one or two of my friends ~ one especially~ who are not "literary" in their10 tastes, and who care little for any authors except Shakspere and Burns, but who love manly and heroic qualities, outdoor life, boating, sailing, engineering &c, and who have a deep inarticulate sense (deeper than usually goes with "culture" and esthecism) of what is good and true -- are attracted by you. It is very clear to me that your ultimate absorption by this class (the class you have loved best of all) is only a matter of time and will be deep and affectionate.). 11 It has been a very great pleasure to me to learn from Dr. Johnston of particulars of his interviews with you and of your great kindness to him. He is still noticeably affected by it, and by your personal presence & conversation, and he looks ~ as I told him the other day ~ "like one who has been awed and exalted by a supernatural visitation." I rejoice especially to hear of your good health ("considering") and of the wonderful extent to which you12 have recovered from your condition two years ago. May you long enjoy health, happiness, "halcyon days, " and the devotion of increasing numbers of loving friends. --- Dr. Johnston's friends are all very much pleased, too, to hear of the hospitable kindness of Mrs. Davis and of "Warren" towards him, and, indeed, I think I will write to them direct, next mail, (per Mrs. Davis) to say so. --- I asked Dr. Johnston about the canary you once celebrated 13 but he could tell me nothing of it (though he told me about your "robin") and we concluded that it must be dead. I am sorry to think that its cheering & "joyous warbles" are ended for you in this way. I was deeply sorry to hear of W. D. O'Connor's death of which we had seen no notice. The last thing I saw about him (some time ago) was that he was ill (in California, I believe). And now I learn that he is dead! Only the week before Dr. Johnston's return14 I had been re-reading his letters (in Dr. Bucke's book) with renewed pleasure in his brilliant and perfervid championship of your cause, and I almost feel now as though I, too, had lost a friend. But I have written too long, & perhaps tired you. Again thanks to you, loved benefactor and friend, from my heart, and love to you always from self & friends. Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace 15 P.S. Aug 19th Dr. Johnston brought me a copy of "Camden's Compliments" and I am very pleased to see, from an advertisement at the end, that a small pocket book edition of L. of G. complete is in existence and is to be had from you. It appears to be just what I want ~ a copy that I can carry conveniently in my pocket in my country rambles & holidays. ~ The ordinary edition is too large ~ though I have often carried it about ~ and the handy volume publishedby W. Scott, which I usually carry, is much too incomplete. I don't know what the carriage will be, but I will enclose money order for 22[?] which I trust will cover it, and shall be glad if you will kindly send me a copy [added text: "book sent"] at your convenience. The fact that it comes direct from you will give it additional interest.Anderton, near Chorley Lancashire, England. 28 August 1890 Dear Walt Whitman, I received the "Camden Post" on Tuesday morning, the 26th inst. and in the evening of the same day I received the "Camden Morning News" ----- the "screed from "The Critic" ---- and your post card --- in reply to which latter I wired to you at once:----- It isn't possible for me to write much at present. I have read all the pieces you sent --- especially the letter to "The Critic."--- It suggests some points I should like to write about , but I must only note one ---- and that is your remark that you are "still rejected by the great magazines" &c. ----- Well --- so much the worse for them ! It is only of a piece with your continued rejection by some of your leading men of letters and the absurdly inadequate recognition of those who seem friendly ----- I could wish it were otherwise, --- and that the solitude of soul in which you have lived might at last, in your old age, be cheered by the advent of a completely intelligent & loving recognition & response. That you are still, in a great degree , "despised & rejected of men" is, however, only the price you pay for your greatness and corresponds with the experience of other great benefactors & redeemers. ----- But there is a wise encompassing Love which transcends all our thinking --"Love be like the light silently wrapping all" ----- which holds both yourself & your work in safe and tender keeping --- Future generations will love you all the more passionately for your rejection by your contemporaries , and we who have already come to partly understand you and to love you also love you more proudly and tenderly because of it. Your great kindness --- most fatherly, most tender --- to Dr Johnston & myself stirs my heart more deeply than I can tell you. We thought it a precious privilege to minister, in however slight a degree to you, and, behold ! you load us in return with the most unlooked for and unmerited kindnesses ! Thanks to you from my heart --- and God bless you ! I cannot write more now but I think I will send you a slip I cut from a newspaper last Dec.br I thought of sending it to you at the time & will now do so. ----- With reverent grateful love always Yours affectionately J.W. Wallace Anderton, m Chorley Lancashire, England 5th Sept~br 1890 Dear Walt Whitman, It is impossible for me to write much now, but I want to get a letter off by this mail in acknowledgement of your very kind post card to hand this morning. ---- Thanks to you indeed! Yes ! I received your portrait "in good order" ----- and with emotions which I have already tried to [express] indicate ----- Apart from its extrinsic 1 [*a photo: the last taken half length like the one you have*]value to me as a gift from yourself , I find its intrinsic merit very great indeed .---- It has "grown" upon me very much, and authenticates itself, to my mind, more and more, as a true characteristic portrait. Indeed, I am delighted with it. (Certainly, far better than the "Illustrated News" one !) I wished to carry out your instructions literally, & to put it in place of the other in the same frame ----- But it did not fit quite satisfactorily so I decided to have a new frame made like the old one (plain oak 3' wide) and to use the old frame for something else. Dr Johnston, too, has had the [the] portrait you gave him (of yourself--painted by Sidney Morse) framed, (god mat & frame) and is very pleased with it He called on me at noon today & I showed him your post card. He is deeply sensible of your great loving - kindness & your solicitude about him. He has improved in health since his return, & is, I think, very well now.--- He kindly brought me, as a present, the two vols. of "Essays" by J. A. Symonds which I have not yet read. I have glanced them over & find much to stir my appetite. But I must no write more now. With the deepest love gratitude & reverence to you always , D. Johnston joining me I remain Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace Anderton, near Chorley Lancashire, England 11 Sept~br 1890 Dear Walt Whitman, I sent a cable message to you this after asking you to send me another copy of the pocket book edition of L. of G, and will enclose a money order herewith for 22£ in payment of same. The friends who have seen my copy are very much pleased with it, and have decided to present 1a copy to one of our number (Rev~d F.R.C. Hutton) on his birthday, the 25th inst. He has been a very useful member of our little Society of friends and is very much liked by us. Since he joined us he has become a great admirer of yours & possesses the ordinary edition of your works. So "the boys" have decided to celebrate his next birthday (and a recent appointment he has received) by presenting 2 him with the new edition, & I was asked at noon to wire for one so that it may come in time. You will get this letter about the same date and we should like to geel that your thoughts & [sympathies] good will are with us. I have no better portrait to send, but I will enclose a newspaper portrait that appeared last Saturday ( He sat need to me in the group of which we once sent you a photo) He is an old student of Browning, by whom he has been largely influenced, (in theology & otherwise) and apart from opinions --- is a man of fine sensibilities, have, unaffected, quietly devout, brotherly and loveable --- already becoming a noteable man in the town. Dr Johnston met me as I came away from business tonight & showed me the papers & copies of recent poems he had just received from you. Your continued kindnesses are very precious to us. With love to you always Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace P.S. O. W. Holmes is repelled by what he considers your sins against the conventions. Here, by way of offset, is an English Vicar, among your fervent admirers! P.P.S. ------ 12 Sept br I was very much pleased to receive your kind post card this morning & thank you heartily. I am sorry to learn that you were suffering from "the grip" when you wrote, but hope that it has now left you altogether -- We got the February number of the Universal Review when it appeared. Thank you, however, for your kind & considerate mention of it, as we wish to overlook nothing of that kind. ----- Tomorrow after (Saturday) there will be a full meeting of our little Society ----- at a country farm --- to hear Dr J's account of his visit to you. (Turn over) I see from "The Conservator" that you have a new volume in preparation of which I presume that the slips you have sent Dr. J. are proofs ----- Will you please to enrol me as a subscriber & send me a copy when ready ? I will remit cash when I know the amount. J. W. W. 1 Anderton, near Chorley. Lancashire, England 19 Sept 1890 Dear Walt Whitman, Your kind postcard of the 8th inst. and papers just to hand. My cordial thanks to you. - Dr Johnston has already told you of the open air meeting held by our friends last Saturday -- afternoon -- the 13th inst --- 4 miles from Bolton --- 2 to hear his account of his visit to you and to West Hills.----- It was a perfect September day,--- --- warm, calm and bright, with a slight, pensive autumnal haze veiling the distance. We gathered together under the shade of a tree in the fields and listened for over an hour and a half to the Dr's story and examined the photos. he handed round as he proceeded 3 It brought you very near to us all and every heart was stirred as the Dr told us of your great kindness to him, and of your kind messages to us all ----- since repeated, again & again, in your post cards to me. In the talk which followed a general feeling was expressed that our united gratitude, thanks & affection should be conveyed to you, and I was commissioned to write to you.----- 4 It gives me great pleasure to do so for our little society owes its very existence, indirectly, to you, and we are all, in greater or less degree, your admirers & lovers. One of the friends (Thomas Shorrock) has since asked me to procure a copy of the pocket book edition of L. of G. for him. So I will enclose a money order for 22£. I shall be glad if you will send one at your convenience. 5 I am just beginning my holidays (long needed) & your book accompanies me in all my rambles. I am spending the first few days at home and taking solitary walks in the lovely country lanes and on the moors near here. With you for company I have all I wish and spend blessed hours of sacred, vital communion with the wordless divine Sprit that informs all things 6 and with my own soul. How near and dear you are to me I cannot tell you. But I am sure that no author before ever appealed to such depths of a man's nature, or aroused such tender, personal love. Very sure am I that your now despised poems will yet rank with the Hebrew Scriptures (to which alone I can compare them) as sacred and priceless ---- 7 springing from divine depths the latest modern revelation of the same Spirit. I will enclose a cutting from last weeks paper giving another instance (at a place a few miles from here) of the latent heroism of the roughest classes. With love to you always Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace 8 P.S. Sept 20th I think I shall respect the spirit of your gift of the large-type proof sheets of your paper on Burns if I present it in turn to the "Bolton Junior Burns Club" ----- Called "Junior" because of later birth than the B. Burns Club. This latter (now defunct) consisted of professional men & middle class tradesmen. The Junior B.C. consists wholly of working men --- my father being a member. How proud Burns himself would be of it if he were here ! Firm justice of statement & criticism, but also the tenderest sympathy & love. Every lover of Burns will thank you for it. Anderton, near Chorley Lancashire, England. 15. Oct br 1890 Dear Walt Whitman, Your kind post-card of Sept: 30th rec~d on the 11th inst, and the pocket- book copy of L. of G. received this morning. Many thanks. I am glad to hear of the visit from John Burroughs, which I know would be a very great pleasure to you both. He told Dr. J. that he wished very much that he could persuade you to live near him. Dr Johnston tells me that a friend of ours, & a school - fellow of mine, --- Fred Wild -- is likely to call upon you. He has been spending a little time in Canada, & wrote home that he would return by New York, & would probably go on to Camden to see you. Dr. J. sent you a telegram to that effect last week. I understand, however, that he is likely to have left America before this reaches you. I spent 3 days in Yorkshire last week ----- so ending my holiday. ----- I am by no means so much recruited in health as I expected, but hope to improve gradually as time goes on. The weather here is broken --- two or three days of fair weather alternating with a few days of rain. Fairly warm so far, getting colder at nights. Looking through some old papers the other day I came across a cutting from the "Sunday Chronicle" dated Feb 27th 1887. Probably you have not seen it, and I think I will enclose it. It is of very slight value but is interesting because of its source ---- the S.C. having a large circulation amongst the working classes here & being very radical & heterodox in character .----- It pays you the left-handed compliment of professing to employ a "Walt Whitman Junior" on its staff, whose verses often appear but do no credit to the name! Dr. Johnston seems in good health now & very busy. I hope that the "grippe' has now left you, &, with love & best wishes always, remain Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace Anderton, m Chorley Lancashire, England 18. Nov~br 1890 Dear Walt Whitman, This morning I received from Dr Johnston a copy of the current number of "Great Thoughts" (containing a short article on yourself) and a note in which he told me of his intention to send a copy to you. In the same paper I found copies of two beautiful letters by Carlyle which I have not previously met with. ----- As you may possibly overlook them, and as one will be of special interest to you, I will cut it out and enclose it with this. I have no time now for more, but, with love always, remain Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace Anderton, near Chorley, Lancashire, English 16. Dec 1890 Dear Walt Whitman, Dr Johnston has told you about the "Surprise Party" he received on his birthday ----- the 8th inst: I, myself, was unable to attend it & Hutton is away from home at present, but all the rest of the nds were there & h a good time One of our friends W. Dixon ~ contributed two songs (with choruses) of which I afterwards asked for copies. I received them today & read them at noon for the first time. It occurred to me as I read them that they might possibly afford you a slight momentary amusement, & I will send them on with this. As you will see, they haven't much merit or value but you will note the reference to Dr Johnston's visit to you. One line saying that Dr. J. triumphantly has shown us a hair from off your beard ! & requires explanation. In a letter he received from you he says (and appropriately) a white hair attached to the mucilage of the envelope. I hope that you are better than when you last wrote, and am anxious to hear a better report. The weather here has been very cold and frosty for a week back and now threatens snow. With love and best wishes always, Yours affectionately, J. W. Wallace Anderton, near Chorley Lancashire, England 19. Dec 1890 Dear Walt Whitman, Since the receipt of your last letter to Dr Johnston, I cannot help thinking continually about you and the ~ complicated disorders your letter reported. And so, ~ though I have nothing else to write about ~ I want to send you a line or two again to express my loving sympathy with you and my best wishes. I hope that you are better than when you wrote, & I am anxious to hear a better report. After about a fortnight's frost, we have had today a heavy fall of snow. The young moon shines hightly tonight, & it is again freezing. It seems likely that we shall have an "old - fashioned" (frosty) Christmas. The weather is very different to that in which Dr. Johnston visited you, and I try to imagine you ~ in these short, dark days ~ confined to the room which Dr J's description & photographs have made so familiar solitary and ill ~ It reminds me of my mother's condition in her last [days] years ~ lame, suffering & much alone ~ and my heart goes out to you like a son's. But, as circumstances darkened, she herself only seemed to grow sweeter and more loveable, ~ more loving, tender & self-forgetting and her faith deeper and brighter. And I, too, learned to love her more & more. Day by day your influence is spreading and new friends are learning to appreciate and to love you, with grateful reverence, and a personal affection such as no one ever aroused before. I am deeply grateful that I, for one, am ~ privileged to write to you, and to act as spokesman for an increasing multitude of others who are not so privileged, but who, like myself, will think of you at this season with loving good-will and tender sympathy. God bless you & all your household Yours affectionately, J. W Wallace Walt Whitman, 328 Mickle St Camden New Jersey U.S. America Envelope postmarked: Bolton 58 DE27 90"1 Anderton, near Chorley Lancashire, England 27. Dec.br 1890. Dear Walt Whitman, I have to thank you for the copy of the "Philadelphia Enquirer" of the 12th inst. which I received this morning. I was very pleased to read the paragraph marked, and still more ~ pleased by the kind remembrance & consideration which prompted you to send it. I with that, 2 besides the information it gives as to what you are doing, it had also said how you were. By its account of your "buoyant spirits", and of your "getting outdoors in good weather" it indirectly conveys a good impression of your health, but I am anxious to hear a more authentic account. I earnestly hope that you are much better than when you wrote last. 3 Dr Johnston received a long & most kind & interesting letter yesterday from J.A. Symonds which he sent on to me to read. He intended to forward a copy to you by this mail, & I have no doubt but that he will do so. Symonds's letter is so kind, & so pathetic in its interest, that I am inclined to write to him myself; ---- and, if a favourable opportunity presents itself, I will do so. 4 Your name will be a sufficient warrant for my intruding upon his Alpine solitude and 7 months winter ~ in "broken health" & "meditations upon the problem of approaching death" (referred to in the Preface to his last Essays) ~ with a note of friendliness & sympathy ~ with no little of reverence and gratitude too. God bless him.5 We have had a very seasonable Christmas here. ~ snow on the ground with slight frost, rather dull & overcast, with heavy snowfall in the evening. We had a slight thaw for a day or two previously, but it seems likely to revert to frost again. Last week end ~ while the keen frost continued & the trees were hung with rime ~ we had two of 6 the most lovely moonlight nights here I ever remember to have seen. The country about Rivington ~ near here was beautiful beyond description - I only wish that I had the time & the power to give you some account of it. But one element in a description of its effect upon me as I walked through it would lie in the influence your books have 7 had on me to make me receptive to its marvellous & mystic beauty - Thanks to you, ~ and love to you ~ now and always. When you get this we shall have entered upon a new year. I hope that it may bring you renewed health and strength & blessedness & joy. All good be with you, & the increasing love of 8 an increasing number of those who are entering upon the blessed fruits of the long travail of your soul. With love & best wishes Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace 1 [*see notes Mar. 7, 1891*] Anderton, near Chorley Lancashire, England 6. Jany. 1891. Dear Walt Whitman, I was delighted yesterday morning to receive your kind post card of Dec~br 23rd, & I thank you for it with all my heart I was very much pleased to note the rather better report of your health at the time of writing --- ("pretty fair ~ considering") -- & of your having been out the previous day. This morning, I had the further pleasure of receiving a letter from Dr. Johnston, enclosing copies of your P.C. to him & of a letter from Horace L. Traubel dated Dec~br 25th, which confirmed the glad news of your improved condition. I was also very much pleased to receive a copy of "The New Ideal" 3 for Dec~br and one of "Unity" for August 28th; ----- both very kindly sent by Traubel at your suggestion. I will write to him tonight (though briefly) to thank him. I note your description of your solitude &c, relieved "once in a while " by "something or somebody that cheers you," & I wish that I could do something better to cheer you than writing stupid letters. But I can only do "as they" are said to "do in Chowbent" 4 (a village near Bolton) ----- viz: ----- the best they can ! Indeed, I am doing very little in any way at present. I am still suffering from exhaustion of brain & nerves, which is very slow to quit, & which, while it lasts, prevents me from doing anything beyond my necessary work. Even the society of friends ("the College") of which I was the founder & leader, & which met at our house while we lived in Bolton, has seen very little of me this winter & which met at our house 5 [*March 7th 91 note*] Both in it, & in literary work besides. I have been anxious to extend your influence & to help on your work. And I trust that in good time, & by God's help, I shall be able to do so ----- perhaps all the better for my present inactivity. Meanwhile, it is my proudest & dearest privilege to write to you, & to show you something ----- (if nothing better) of a love which is as that of a son, & of the gratitude & homage due to my greatest benefactor & exemplar. 6 As I read your post card & thought of you sitting alone in your room, (in your big chair ~ with wolfskin,) writing & reading ----- "or rather going through the motions"----- I wished that I could sit with you, & read aloud for you what you wished, & write as you dictated. How gladly would I do so if I only could ! But I have to content myself with looking up at your portrait which looks down upon me from the mantel piece & writing as I can. 7 I am most heartily glad that you begin the New Year under improved conditions of health ~ (or seemed likely to do so at Christmas) I devoutly hope that as the year goes on it may bring you increasing strength & immunity from pain, inspirations of nobler cheer & trust & love, with wider & deeper returns of the love you have poured forth in such a measureless & lifelong flood ----- & that 8 your eyes may be gladdened with visible beginnings of the noble harvest yet to come to the burning seeds of faith & joy & love you have so diliquently planted. With heartfelt deepest thanks for all your benefits -- & for all your personal loving kindness - to me, & with responding love, gratitude & reverence always, I remain, Your affectionately J. W. Wallace BOLTON 45 JA 3 91 Walt Whitman, 328, Mickle St Camden New Jersey, U. S. AmericaCAMDEN, N. J. JAN 11 4PM 1891 REC'DAnderson, near Chorley, Lancashire, England 9 Jany. 1891. Dear Walt Whitman, Sitting here tonight, after my day's work is done, thinking of some of my friends & of you -- an impulse comes upon me to write to you again. Today is Fred Wild's birthday, & tonight a number of his friends are met at his house to spend the evening in social mirth & rejoicing. For different reasons (health the main one) I am not with them ~ and will write to you instead. Fred has been away from home this week on business. So Johnston & I sent to his house for the copy of L. of G. you sent him, (& which came after he had left) so that we might give it to him as a joint present. I wrote the following inscription in it: -- To Fred Wild Something for a token from J. Johnston & J. W. Wallace 9 January 1891 With the love of comrades With the life-long love of comrades See Bottom of Page 119. 3 Fred is an old school chum of mine, & we have been intimate & affectionate friends ever since. (My mother used to say he was her "other son.") We are very widely different in many ways, but our friendship has lasted through all these years without [a] break, & I trust it will continue "through old age" too. He has the English edition of L of G but wanted the pocket book edition, & asked Johnston to procure it. In its presentation to him by Johnston & myself, -- & in the fact 4 that we are all three lovers of you -- I feel that we not only express an old affection but that we enter into fresh obligations to carry on your work & in particular to establish wherever possible "the institution of the dear love of comrades." As I sit here in this quiet country place, "away from the clank of the world," my soul, too, "rejoices in comrades," & in writing to you I invoke a larger measure of your own spirit. -- I thank you, dear friend & master, for the strong illumination5 which your personal loving kindnesses to Johnston & myself, have cast upon your words. Powerfully as your words had moved us before, they do so still more as we see you -- in your old age & weakness -- so full of consideration & tenderness, so regardless of your own personal comfort & leisure, & so unwearied in your constant acts of loving kindness to us both. Love & gratitude to you evermore! And to us more & more of your spirit! 6 I hope that your health has continued to improve since the date of your last communications & of Traubel's letter. I sent a brief & hurried note to Traubel by the last mail, & thought of supplementing it by a letter this mail. But I cannot now do so. Will you convey to him my affectionate regards & best wishes? Last week we had 3 or 4 days of thaw. But the frost set in again as keen as ever & last night we had a heavy snowfall.7 Outside building operations have been stopped for 5 weeks or so. Alas! for the poor fellows, who with their families at best live only from hand to mouth & who are now starving. With love to you Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace P. S. (by J Johnston) Jan 10th 1891 Bolton This morning I called at JWW's office to shew him a very kind letter I had just received from your friend Wm Rossetti when he shewed me this letter & suggested that I should add a few lines to it. I spent a very pleasant 8 time at Fred Wild's last night, the only drawback being the absence of Fred himself, he being detailed at Coventry on business. This afternoon I spent a couple of hours with JWW at Anderton & we had a truly delightful walk thro' beautiful Rivington now all mantled in snow. It was a lovely afternoon & as we tramped along the hardened snow tracks of the field path & roadways we talked a good deal about you & at intervals JWW read aloud passages from "L of G," our hearts filled with loving grateful thoughts of1 Anderton, near Chorley Lancashire, England 16 Jan.y 1891 Dear Walt Whitman, I can't write much tonight, but I want to send you a few lines by this mail. Fred Wild called to see me yesterday & had dinner with me (in Bolton). I spoke of my last letter to you, & said that if I had had a spare copy of his photo : I would have sent 2 it to you. ----- So this morning, I was pleased to receive a letter from him enclosing one, which I forward herewith. He is very much pleased with his copy of L. of G. *he is an old lover of yours,) & regards its presentation from Johnston & myself as "another token of our brotherhood," covenanted anew in your dear & honoured name. He hopes that the influence of the book "may 3 bind our hearts more firmly together in the coming years," & asks me, when I write to you again, "to at least send you his warmest love & good wishes." ----- I am glad to do so at once, for I know well how sincere & deep his love & admiration for you are. He is not "literary" at all, though he is not without appreciation of the best literatures. He has an artist's eye for the beauties of 4 Nature (paints a little), but prefers Nature at first hand, with its vital freshness & movement. (Loves the sea especially ----- boating, sailing, fishing &c). He is not conventional, but rather too unconventional, & always prefers to be considered much worse than he is, rather than better. He has a wild, native wit of his own, & is frank, outspoken & free in speech & manners ----- But he is liked at once by all wherever he goes. And, at 5 the heart of him is a deep, constant affectionateness, faithful & unswerving, & a native reverence of soul, all the deeper because so impatient of make-belief as to seem irreverent & irreligious. He has a wife & four children of whom he is fond. And I, his friend & intimate chum from boyhood, have found him stedfastly loyal & true & affectionate, through thick & thin. I wish the portrait were a better one, but such 6 as it is, it may serve as a message of his personal love & adhesion. I rejoice to think that natures like his respond to you so spontaneously & so warmly. You can afford to let the literary classes stand in antagonism to you (though it [must] can be for a short time only), while the masses (the great majority,) who deal with life & nature & experience at first hand, & who despise 7 second hand presentations in books & art, see in you a master, as fresh & oiled as Nature itself, offering them love & faith, & vistas before unknown. I hope that you are better, & your "health points" more "favourable" than when you wrote last. With love to you always I remain Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace Walt Whitman 328, Miekle St. Camden New Jersey U.S. America1 Anderton, nr Chorley Lancashire England 23 January 1891 My dear Walt Whitman, Thank you for the copy of "Once a Week" you sent me & which I received on the 17th ult. ----- I noted especially the account of The O'Gorman Mahon, & the pictures & leader relating to the Indians. It reminded me of your "Indian Bureau Reminiscences" which I re-read 2 I hope that your artist friend "B. H." "regained his health" & has been successful in his studies & work. I send you herewith a copy of "The Magazine of Art" for January, --- containing a photogravure & engravings of earlier portraits of Ruskin, which I think will interest you. I have long been deeply interested in his books, & it used to be one of my main desires to give3 them complete & exhaustive study, that I, too, might contribute a little to their exposition & support. And I still think that no English author since his master Carlyle -- so emphatically deserves it, & deserves the sympathetic & careful study of his race. And at no period, probably, has a braver, purer spirit ever spent his passionate force in literature for the sacred cause of human well-being. 4 His message (with whatever limitations, -- & they are great) is one of deep importance to his generation, & should be laid well to heart. But it still needs to be set in its due relationship & needs (it seems to me) to be corrected & offset by the larger & complementary (or rather over-arching) teaching which you have given us. I have long desired to attempt to do this. And with better health & strength, & under6 more favourable conditions, I yet hope to do something towards it. I often wonder to what extent you are acquainted with his books. No doubt you know some of them well - They are antagonistic, of course, in several essential respects, to your own, But I am often struck, in minor points, with the degree in which they are not only in unison with yours, but in which they support & illustrate them. 6 "Wisdom is justified of all her children," and the truth of every man's work or thought is eliminated, in course of time, to the last fraction, from the false, & helps onward the march of human progress. ----- If Ruskin is narrow & wilful -- if he "prescribes specifics for indispensible evils," or if, --- Quixote-like - he tilts at times against imaginary foes, let us, not any the less, revere the [no?th?ess] of his aims, &7 & honour, with swelling love & gratitude, the fiery war against the evils of his time, in which he has spent his energies & wasted his heart. One wishes, at times, that he had known you personally long ago, & could have had familiar talk with you, face to face, as he had with Carlyle. And I have often been disposed to wish that Carlyle could have done so too Your great love for him is very manifest. indeed he, above 8 all others, loved a man & knew one when he saw one. How sad & strange, it seems at times, that he should have never really known you at all! But the Divine Providence is wise. It was Carlyle's lot to do a great & needed service, which, under other conditions, would perhaps have never been done. And though one wishes for his sake that he could have learned of you, & though it might have saved him desolating pain & loneliness of heart, yet,9 who shall say that his great soul was not better for the terrible toils & grim purgatorial fires through which he passed, & for the agonizings & fierce travail throes of his prophetic (however partial) message ? And it has seemed clear to me in reading Ruskin's latest books, (the later vols. of "Foro Clavigera" especially) that in his passionate crusade against the evils of our modern life --- notwithstanding its bruises to his delicate susceptible spirit, & the yet more bitter separation 10 of life & isolation of soul in which it has placed him,-- (as of one crying in the wilderness") he has, nevertheless, gained in spiritual depth & insight, & (I think) in a deeper trust in the ultimate good to follow the vast movements & (to him) apparent disintegration & retrogression of our time. He does not love your Republic & its aims But no other living English author, I think, has made some (with all deductions) so valuable a contribution that 11 sociology & evolution. (Though I recognize its limitations & drawbacks. ----- & see how much better is the ideal to which America is actually tending --- independently of any authors). Pardon my writing to you thus. ----- But it is partly because I have loved Carlyle & Ruskin from long years, & studied their books, that your teaching has been so precious to me ----- I like that you are keeping better ----- The weather here is very variable --- a day 12 or two of thaw or rain - followed by sharp frost & snow. With love to you always I remain Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace P.S. Since writing this I have just received from Dr. Johnston your post card of Jan: 9th & am glad to note that you were fairly well. Walt Whitman 328 Mickle St Camden New Jersey U. S. AmericaAnderton, nr Chorley. Lancashire, England 6. February . 1891 My dear Walt Whitman, I was extremely pleased, last evening, to receive the copy of Ingersoll's lecture you were kind enough to send me, & I thank you for it with all my heart. I have read it over tonight for the first time. ---- I was hardly prepossessed in its favour - I had previously known but little of Ingersoll. And I learned from Carlyle, long ago, to care little for platform "oratory" as such, & to consider the main question always (as you do) "what does it amount to ?" And the newspaper reports (necessarily brief & imperfect) did not make it appear to amount to very much. But the full report, as I read it, swept away all prepossession & criticism, & filled me with a great & dilating joy. It is a great & notable utterance --- strong, manly brave & free --- worthy of its subject & worthy of a great American orator to an American audience. I feel as though I should like to write to Ingersoll himself to thank him for it. And I rejoice, with all my heart, that at last you should have heard so strong a public declaration of the value of your work. Honour to Ingersoll for it ! and gratitude & love to him from all your friends here. But my rejoicing is greatly disturbed & overclouded by intelligence received at noon today of your relapse & ill health. Dr. J. sent me a copy of a paragraph in yesterday "Daily Graphic" as follows : ----- " A post card received from Walt Whitman says : --- 'am having an extra bad spell these days. May blow over ; may not.' " No date is given so that I do not know when it was written. But we shall be very anxious indeed till we hear further. I will write to Traubel by this mail to ask him to send word at once. Dearest & best of friends ! Most honoured of benefactors ! What can we say to you ? - but that our warmest love & sympathy & our heart's best wishes are with you always. -------- With best love Yours affectionately J. W. WallaceAnderton, near Chorley. Lancashire, England 10 Feb 1891 My dear Walt Whitman, Just a few lines in acknowledgment of your very kind and ---- affectionate post card of Jan: 27th, addressed to Dr Johnston, & received yesterday. It's most important sentence to us, is that referring to yourself. (I continue rather poorly. End uncertain?) And we shall be very anxious indeed till we hear further & better news. I do hope that you are better by this time, & am looking forward to the receipt of a message from Traubel. I got today a copy of this month's "Magazine of Art," which I will send on to you with this. It contains some additional & later portraitsof Ruskin, which will perhaps interest you. But the writer has to end by saying that Ruskin's portrait ~ his true portrait ~ does not exist. It could not exist." I wish I could send you something more but must content myself, for the present, with saying that our loving sympathy & best wishes are with you always. Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace Envelop postmarked: BOLTON 45 FE 18 91 Walt Whitman 328 Mickle St Camden New Jersey U.S. AmericaAnderton, m Chorley. Lancashire, England 17 Feb 1891 My dear Walt Whitman, I have only time at present for a few lines to say that we received a cable message from Traubel this morning, with the welcome intelligence that you were "all right" &c. Whatever deductions may require to be made from this, it is still glad news to us, & we hope that further & detailed information will show some improvement on your late condition. Yesterday I received from a friend in Leeds a copy of an English edition of Ingersoll's lecture, which I will send on to you with this in case you have not seen it. I intend to order a few copies of it in addition to the American copies ordered through Traubel. I was detained in Bolton tonight on business, & afterwards called on Dr J. before coming on here by the last train. He asked me to convey his love to you, & with filial love & best wishes I remain Yours affectionately J. W. WallaceWalt Whitman, 328, miekle St Camden New Jersey. N.J. AmericaAnderton, m Chorley. Lancashire, England 20 Feb. 1891 My dear Walt Whitman, I was extremely pleased yesterday morning to receive your post card of the 10th inst., with its cheerful account of yourself and its loving benediction. Thank you from my heart. How much I feel your kindness I cannot fully tell you. But if, 2 (as you say) you "sent out "Leaves of Grass" to arouse, & set flowing endless streams of living, pulsating love & friendship, directly from us to yourself, now & ever."---- You have still further done so, in our fortunate experience, by your continued loving kindness & affectionate words. Thanks, and again thanks, & God bless you. To your "terrible, irrepressible yearning ---- your 3 never-satisfied appetite for sympathy" ----- alas ! we can only partially respond, (for what are we ?) but our hearts best love is yours, and a reverence & gratitude such as we feel towards no one else. We are deeply sorry to learn that you have been so unwell of late. We hoped that the improved condition of your health reported to us at Christmastide had continued, -- until we were alarmed by a newspaper 4 paragraph which seemed to show that you had had a bad relapse. It is reassuring now to learn that it has not been so bad as we feared, & that you "might be much worse," & we hope to hear better news before long. The other night I picked up a little book at the Railway bookstall, which I have been looking over tonight. It is called: "In Darkest London"5 and is a story of a Salvation Army captain engaged in the East end. It gives a very painful & realistic account of the horrible misery, destitution & vice prevailing, & of the noble self-sacrificing efforts of men & women, (Agnostics, Salvationists &c) who, with love & pity, do what they can to lessen its misery. The hero of the story breaks down in health, & is ordered into Kent, where he visits a 6 village graveyard. ----- "Long grass grew over the graves such as Walt Whitman calls the hair of the dead' " &c &c. To find your name in such a story was like seeing a beam __ of light in a dark place - And I was glad to think of, & to read once more, your "Song of the Universal," & to be cheered by its quenchless faith." 7 Last night I called to enquire about a young girl (18), who is slowly dying. It stirred me to hear the accounts of her :---- "a triumph of patience. When she is the better side out she is always singing. (Can scarcely hear her speak, but sings pretty clearly) ---- and when in pain praising." Out of the mouths of babes & sucklings Thou hast ordained strength," and things 8 hid from the wise & prudent" are "revealed to babes," Surely this is the victory that overcomes the world --- a victory we should all share --- the glad soul recognizing tender Love & care & grounds for hope --- in all the circumstances of life & death. I cannot write any more now. But with best love always I remain Yours affectionately J. W. Wallace