The Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman

At last the beloved books have reached my hand--but now I have them, my heart is so rent with anguish, my eyes so blinded, I cannot read in them. I try again and again, but too...

Your long waited for letter brought me both joy & pain; but the pain was not of your giving. I gather from it that a long letter[9] which I wrote you Sept. 6th after I had recei...

I have been wanting the comfort of a talk with you, dearest Friend, for weeks & weeks, without being able to get leisure & tranquillity enough to do it to my heart's content--in...

The change down here has refreshed me more than usual and I find my Mother still wonderful for her years (the 89th), able to get out daily in her Bath chair for two or three hou...

All the papers have reached me--3 separate packets (with the handwriting on them that makes my heart give a glad bound). I look through them full of interest & curiosity, wantin...

The newspapers have both come to hand & been gladly welcomed. I shall realize you on the 26th sending living impulses into those young men, with results not to cease--their kind...

The paper has just been forwarded here which tells me you are still suffering and not, as I was fondly believing, already quite emerged from the cloud of sickness. My Darling, l...

You don't write me a letter nor take any notice of my magnificent offers concerning "Pond Musings", etc. however, I will forgive you this oft-repeated offence. I often think of...

I was to tell you about my acquaintanceship with Tennyson, which was a pleasant episode in my life at Haslemere. Hearing of the extreme beauty of the scenery thereabouts & speci...

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 pe...

The 3d July was my rejoicing day, dearest Friend,--the day the packet from America reached me, scattering for a while the clouds of pain and humiliation & filling me through & t...

How the busy days slip by one so like another, yet each with its own fresh & pleasant flavour & scent, as like and as different as the leaves on a tree, or the plants in the hed...

Since last I wrote to you at the beginning of April (enclosing a little photograph of that avenue just by our cottage at Colne) I have been into Wales for a fortnight to see Per...

I send you photographs of my oldest and youngest children, I wish I had some worth sending of the other two. That of myself done in 1850 is a copy of a daguerrotype. The recent...

Are you well and happy, and enjoying this beautiful summer? London is, in one sense, a sort of big prison at this time of year: but still at a wide open window, with the blue sk...

I must write again, out of a full heart. For the reading of this book, "The Two Rivulets," has filled it very full. Ever the deep inward assent, rising up strong, exultant my im...

Glad am I when the time comes round for writing to you again--though I can't please myself with my letters, poor little echoes that they are of the loving, hoping, far-journeyin...

I have run down to Colne for a glimpse of my dear Bee, whom I had not seen for five months, and of my Mother; & now I am alone with the latter, Beatrice taking my place at home...

I am sitting in my room with my dear little grandson, the sweetest little fellow you ever saw, asleep beside me. Giddy and Norah (my 3d daughter) are gone into Durham to do some...

The papers with Prof. Young's speech came safely & I read it, my hand in yours, happy and full of interest. Are you getting on, my Darling? When I know that you no longer suffer...

You could not easily realize the strong emotion with which I read your last note and traced on the little map[33]--a most precious possession which I would not part with for the...

Hospital life is beginning to seem a long-accustomed life. I enjoy all the duties involved & all the human relations. Even getting up in the night is compensated for by yielding...

Welcome was your postcard announcing recovered health & return to Camden! May this find you safe there, well & hearty, able to go freely to & fro on the ferries & streets. I wis...

Lazy me, that have been thinking letters to you instead of writing them! We have Dr. Bucke's book at last; could not succeed in buying one at Tuerbner's--I believe they all sold...

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...

I feel as if I didn't a bit deserve the glorious budget you sent me yesterday, for I have been a laggard, dull correspondent of late, because, leading such an unsettled kind of...

I have just been sauntering in our little but sunny garden which slopes to the South--surveying with much satisfaction some fruit trees--plum, green gage, pear, cherry, apple--w...

At last I have extracted a little bit of news about you from friend Carpenter, who never comes to see us and is [as] reluctant to write letters as--somebody else that I know. Th...

How has the winter passed with you I wonder? Me it has imprisoned very much with bronchial & asthmatic troubles--and the four walls of the house & the ceiling seem to close in u...

Such a joyful surprise was that last paper you sent me with the Poem celebrating the great events in Spain--the new hopes the new life wakening in the breasts of that fine Peopl...

I wrote you a letter the 6th September & would fain know whether it has reached your hand. If it have not, I will write its contents again quickly to you--if it have, I will wai...

Long & long does it seem since I have had any word or sign from you. I hope all goes well & that you have had a pleasant, refreshing summer trip somewhere. All goes on much as u...

It did me much good to get your Poem--beautiful, earnest, eloquent words from the soul whose dear companionship mine seeks with persistent longing--wrestling with distance & tim...

I see, my dearest Friend, I must not look for those dashes under the words I thought were going to convey a joyful confirmation of my hopes. I see how the dark clouds linger. Fu...

Herby has told you of our difficulties in getting comfortable quarters here--and also that we seem now to have succeeded--not indeed in the way I most wished & hoped we had--in...

Shall you never find it in your heart to say a kind word to me again? or a word of some sort? Surely I must have written what displeased you very much that you should turn away...

I have had all the welcome papers with accounts of your doings, and to-day a nice long letter from Mrs. Whitman, which I much enjoyed, giving me better account of your health ag...

I had a lingering hope--till Herby went south again--that I should have a letter from you, in answer to mine, saying you were coming up to see us here. In truth, it was a great...

Pain and joy struggle together in me (but joy getting the mastery, because its portion is eternal). O the precious letter, bearing to me the living touch of your hand, vibrating...

Herby went to David Bognes[38] about a week ago: he himself was out, but H. saw the head man, who reported that the sale of "Leaves of Grass" was progressing satisfactorily. I h...

Down at this Dispensary we work just as hard as at the Hospital, but our spare minutes are our own (no records to write out); our work is under our own control; we are out in fr...

You have long ere this, I hope, received Herby's letter telling of the safe arrival of the precious copy of "Specimen Days," with the portraits: it makes me very proud. Your fat...

Your card to hand last night, with its sad account of dear Mrs. Stafford's health; but what the doctor says is cheering. I wonder, though, what the doctor would call good weathe...

Just a line of birthday greeting, my dearest Friend. May it find you enjoying the beautiful spring-time & the grand sights of people & products & the music at Philadelphia, notw...

We set foot on dry land again Wednesday morning after a good passage--not a very smooth one--and not without four or five days of seasickness, but after that we really enjoyed t...

Are you never coming? I do long & long to see you. I am beginning to like New York better than I did and to have pleasant times. Had some friendly chats with Kate Hillard last w...

Though it is but a few days since I posted a letter, my dearest friend, I must write you again--because I cannot help it, my heart is so full--so full of love & sorrow & struggl...

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 Editi...

I read your long piece in the Philadelphia _Times_ with ever so much interest, & with especial delight the delicately told bit about the dear old Pond, artistic, because so true...

On the night of 3d January last I was paralyzed, left side, and have remained so since. Feb. 19 I lost a dear dear sister, who died in St. Louis leaving two young daughters. May...

The days are slipping away so pleasantly here that weeks are gone before I know it. The Concord folk are as friendly as they are intellectual, and there is really no end to the...

It seems quite a long while since I wrote, & a _very long_ while since you wrote. I am beginning to turn my thoughts Philadelphia-wards that we may have some weeks near you befo...

I hope you are enjoying this splendid, sunshiny weather as much as we are--the atmosphere here is delicious. In the morning Giddy and I set at home busy with needle work, letter...

Your letter came to me just when I most needed the comfort of it--when I was watching and tending my dear Mother as she gently, slowly, with but little suffering, sank to rest....

Your postcard came to hand some little time ago. I was pleased to get it, to hear of your being well, & with your friends. I have been extremely busy seeing after the new editio...

Your letter to Herby was a real talk with you. I don't know why I punish myself by writing to you so seldom now, for indeed to be near you, even in that way would do me good--of...

It is not for want of thinking of you, dear Walt, that I write but seldom: for indeed my thoughts are chiefly occupied with you & your other self--your Poems--& with struggles t...

Do not think me too wilful or headstrong, but I have taken our tickets & we shall sail Aug. 30 for Philadelphia. I found if I did not come to a decision now, we could not well a...

Your letter of last summer to William O'Connor with the passages transcribed from a lady's correspondence, had been shown me by him, and copy lately furnished me, which I have j...

Those few words of yours to Herby "tasted good" to us--few, but enough, seeing that we can fill out between the lines with what you have given us of yourself forever & always in...

Yesterday _was_ a day for me, dearest Friend. In the morning your letter, strong, cheerful, reassuring--dear letter. In the afternoon the books. I don't know how to settle down...

I have had joyful news to-day! Percy's wife has a fine little boy--it was born on the 10th, and Norah got through well & is doing nicely; so I feel very happy.

Your welcome letter to hand. I have longed for a word from you--could not write myself[37]--was stricken dumb--nay, there is nothing but silence for me still. Herby wrote to Mrs...

I feel as if this beautiful spring morning here in England must send you greetings through me. Our sunny little mound of garden, which runs down toward the south, is fragrant wi...

Your card (your very voice & touch, drawing me across the Atlantic close beside you) was put into my hand just as I was busy copying out "With husky, haughty lips O sea" to pin...

I don't suppose the enclosed will give you nearly so much pleasure as it gives me. But Villiers Stanford is, I think, the best composer England has produced since the days of Pu...

I received the paper & enclosed slip Saturday week, filling me so full of emotion I could not write, for I am too bitterly impatient of mere words. Soon, very soon, I come, my d...

I have had such joy this morning, my Darling--Poems of yours given in the _Daily News_--sublime Poems one of them reaching dizzy heights, filling my soul with strong delight. Th...

To your good & comforting letter of Feb. 25th I at once answer, at least with a few lines. I have already written this morning a pretty full letter to Mr. Rossetti (to answer on...

The pleasantest event since I last wrote has been a visit from Mr. Eldridge. We had a long, friendly chat that did me good. Saturday evening we went to one of Miss Booth's recep...

I have been waiting quite a while for time and the right mood, to answer your letter in a spirit as serious as its own, and in the same unmitigated trust and affection. But more...

The notion [that] one is going to write a nice long letter is fatal to writing at all. And so I mean to scribble something, somehow, a little oftener & make up in quantity for q...

I send by same mail with this my latest piece copied in a newspaper--and write you just a line. I suppose you only received my former letters (two)--I ought to have written some...

I must write not because I have anything to tell you--but because I want so, by help of a few loving words, to come into your presence as it were--into your remembrance. Not mor...

With full heart, with eyes wet with tears of joy & I know not what other deep emotion--pain of yearning pity blent with the sense of grandeur--dearest Friend, have I read and re...

Thank you, dear friend, for your letter; how I should indeed like to see that _Cathedral_[31], I don't know which I should go for first, the Cathedral or _that baby_.[32] I writ...