The Correspondence: Volume II

General Series Editors Gay Wilson Allen and Sculley Bradley

Originally published between 1961 and 1984, and now available in paperback for the first time, the critically acclaimed Collected Writings of Walt Whitman captures every facet of one of America's most important poets.

In discussing letter-writing, Whitman made his own views clear. Simplicity and naturalness were his guidelines. “I like my letters to be personal—very personal—and then stop." The six volumes in The Correspondence comprise nearly 3,000 letters written over a half century, revealing Whitman the person as no other documents can.

Volume II presents the poet during the years he was developing an international reputation. As they came to understand one of the most important American voices of the century, European writers such as Edward Dowden and John Addington Symonds began to correspond with Whitman. English author Anne Gilchrist wrote her first impassioned love letter to the American poet in 1871. Whitman characteristically waited six weeks before he replied, and his subsequent handling of the unwanted ardor proves a fascinating study of a lover who feared to be loved.