American poet Walt Whitman made a close relationship with English writer
Anne Gilchrist. Here are collection of their correspondence in this
book. After reading Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass for the first time
Anne Gilchrist instantly written a letter to the author to convey her
delight in his poems and to thank him for their publication. From
Whitman's reply was emerge an writing relationship between the two
writers, the substance of which is contained within this interesting
collection. This book is a decent view of a life well-lived (Anne's) and
while most of it is basically a fan girl letter to Whitman, even calling
him godlike at one point. As to the particular set of letters presented,
most of these letters are from Anne Gilchrist to Walt Whitman, a few are
replies to her letters, and a few are letters from her children to
Whitman. Their correspondence was began through William Michael
Rossetti, English writer and critic who edited Whitman's works and this
correspondence was initiated with Gilchrist's letter to Whitman in the
form of a critical essay she wrote in his defence called 'A Women's
Estimate of Walt Whitman'.