The Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman Part 22

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

Delays of Editors--there is no end to them! I am promised now that the art. shall appear in the June No., & if it does I will send you at once the number of copies you name. And if it does not, I think I had best get it back & have done with the editors of _To-day_ & try for some other & better opening again.

I have been reading & re-reading & pondering over Froude's 9 vols of Carlyle--"The Reminiscences," "Letters," &c. &c.--and am pretty well at boiling point with indignation against Froude--boiling point of anger & freezing point of contempt. His betrayal at every point of a sacred trust!

lazy, slip-shod editing! not even taking the pains to put letters and their answers together--but printing the one in 1882 & the others three or four years after--so that half the meaning and all the _mutuality_ of the letters are lost! And then the sly malignity of the comments with which they are preceded! If I live I will do my utmost to expose all this & to show that Mrs. Carlyle was no injured heroine, nor he a selfish & neglected husband. Both had their faults, but the balance of affection & tenderness was largely on his side, as well as of other great qualities: though I like her too--& think she would have scorned Froude's ign.o.ble champions.h.i.+p.

Herby has had rather better luck with his pictures this year. Has one--"The Sculptor's Lesson"--fairly well hung at the Royal Academy--where it s.h.i.+nes out very cheerfully & holds its own modestly, I may say without maternal vanity. I think I described to you the little bit of actual life it depicts--a young girl he saw at the British Museum modelling a copy of an antique statue & young sculptor in his blouse standing below & giving her some animated criticism--a little bit of the Elgin marbles in the background. Herb. has also a little picture he calls "Midsummer"--a bit of a very old & b.u.t.tressed wall hung with roses in full bloom, & Giddy's figure standing above--at the Grosvenor. Now if he has the luck to sell too! He has a commission also to paint a small portrait of me for our friends at Marley, on which he is busy just now. As soon as he has a little spare money in his pocket I think his first use of it will be a run across the Atlantic & a glimpse of you, dear Friend. Giddy is going to sing at a Soiree of socialists & revolutionary folk in general on Wednesday. Her songs are to be "The Wearing of the Green"--& "Poland Dirge" & the "Ma.r.s.eillaise". You will think we are getting pretty red hot!

But alas! though our sympathy with the Cause--the cause of suffering millions--is warm, our faith in the wisdom & ability of those who are aspiring to be the leaders, so far as we know anything of them--is infinitesimal.

What a burst of beauty we have had during the last ten days! We look out just now on a sea of apple & pear blossoms, from the deepest pink to dazzling white--& the tenderest green intermingled with all. I hope you are able to be out nearly all day & enjoy all--and that home affairs go smoothly & comfortably & that Mrs. Davis[42] is attentive & good & every way adequate as care-taker.

I am looking forward very much to the "After Songs" and "Letters of Parting". Does the sale of "Leaves of Gra.s.s" continue pretty steady? I look forward with a sort of dread to seeing my article in proof, lest I should feel very disappointed with it.

Your loving friend,

A. GILCHRIST.

Do you ever see or hear from Mr. Marvin? He is a favourite with all of us.

Do you remember how we laughed at his dramatic presentation of a negro prayer meeting?

LETTER LXXV

ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN

_Hampstead, London Jan. 21, 85._

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

I hope the _To-days_ have come safe to hand. I am thinking a great deal about the new edition; and cannot help hoping you are going to revert to the plan of the Centennial Edition, which issued your writings in two independent volumes. May I, without being presumptuous, dear Walt, tell you how I should dearly like to see them arranged? I want "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," "Song at Sunset," "Song of the Open Road," "Starting from Paumanok," "Carol of Words," "Carol of Occupations" and either as "As I Sat by Blue Ontario's Sh.o.r.e" or the Preface to edit. 55 put into "Two Rivulets"--you could make room for them that the volumes might balance in size by making them exchange places with the "Centennial Songs" and the "Memoranda During the War"; not that these are not precious to me, but I want it dearest because I want in the Two Rivulet Volume what will best prepare the reader, lift him up to the true point of view, and make him all your own, before he comes to the inner sanctuary of "Calamus" & "Walt Whitman" & "Children of Adam."

Monday morn. Your letter just to hand. It gives me deep joy, dear Friend.

I have sent copies of _To-Day_ to Dr. Bucke & John Burroughs but did not know of his change of address; so fear it has miscarried. I will send another, and also one to W. O'Connor.--You did not tell me about your fall--unless indeed a letter has been lost. It fills me with concern because of the difficulty it increases in getting that free out-door life that is so dear & essential to your soul & body, and because, too, I still cherished in my heart a hope that I should yet see you again--here in my own home--& now it seems next to an impossibility. Right thankful am I to hear about Mrs. Davis--that she takes good care of you--please give her a friendly greeting from me. I am going to have rather a bothersome summer--first of all, the house full of workmen to make all clean & tidy; & then my Scotch la.s.sie, friend & factotum rather than servant, must have a holiday & go to her friends in Scotland for a month. I shall heartily welcome your friend, no need to say, & be sure to like her. Love from Grace & Herb. & most of all from me. I have plenty more to say but won't delay this.

Good-bye, dear Walt.

ANNE GILCHRIST.

LETTER LXXVI

ANNE GILCHRIST TO WALT WHITMAN

_12 Well Rd., Hampstead, Eng.

July 20, '85._

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

A kind of anxiety has for some time past weighed upon me and upon others, I find, who love & admire you, that you do not have all the comforts you ought to have; that you are perhaps sometimes straightened for means. We have had letters from several young men, almost or quite strangers to us, asking questions on this subject; and we hoped & thought that if this were so, you would permit those who have received such priceless gifts from you to put their grat.i.tude into some tangible shape, some "free-will offering." Hence the paragraph was put into the _Athenaeum_ which I send with this, and we were proceeding to organize our forces when your paper came to hand this morning (the _Camden Post_, July 3), which seems decisively to bid us desist. Or at all events wait till we had told you of our wishes and plan. One thing would, I feel sure, give you pleasure in any case; and that is to know that there is over here a little band--perhaps indeed it is now quite a considerable one, for we had not yet had time to ascertain how considerable--who would joyfully respond to that Poem of yours, "To Rich Givers."

A friend and near neighbour of ours, Frederick Wedmore, is coming over to America this autumn, and counts much on coming to see you. He is a well-known writer on Art here--a friendly, candid, open-minded man with whom, I think, you will enjoy a talk.

I am on the lookout for Miss Smith[43]--shall indeed enjoy a talk with a special friend of yours, dear Walt. I hope she will not fail to come.

Giddy is away at Haslemere. Herby just going to write for himself to you.

That is a very graphic bit in the _Post_--the portrait of Hugo, the canary & the kitten--I like to know all that--as well as to hear the talk.

My love, dear Walt.

ANNE GILCHRIST.

So far as can be ascertained this is the last letter. Anne Gilchrist died Nov. 29th, 1885.

THE END

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.

Footnotes:

[1] Reprinted from the _Radical_ for May, 1870.

[2] Reprinted from "Anne Gilchrist, Her Life and Writings," by her son Herbert H. Gilchrist--London, 1887.

[3] Reprinted from Horace Traubel's "With Walt Whitman in Camden," I, 219-220. Although addressed to Rossetti, this letter is evidently intended as much for Mrs. Gilchrist, whose name was not at this time known to Whitman.

[4] Alexander Gilchrist.

[5] Mrs. Gilchrist's emotion here apparently prevents her memory from doing complete justice to her own past. For a very different expression of her feelings toward Alexander Gilchrist, written at the time of her betrothal, see her letter announcing the engagement which she sent to her friend, Julia Newton, and which is to be found on pp. 30-31 of her son's biography.

[6] William Michael Rossetti.

[7] To W. M. Rossetti. See _ante_, p. x.