The Literature Network - Worshipping Walt: Lancashire's Whitman disciples: Michael Robertson tells how a group of lower-middle-class men in late-Victorian England found the American poet an inspiration in their desire to reconcile spirituality, science and socialism.(Walt Whi

Worshipping Walt: Lancashire's Whitman disciples: Michael Robertson tells how a group of lower-middle-class men in late-Victorian England found the American poet an inspiration in their desire to reconcile spirituality, science and socialism.(Walt Whi

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From: History Today
Date: 20040401
Author:Robertson, Michael

ON A SPRING EVENING in 1887, Dr John Johnston and Mr J.W. Wallace of Bolton laboured together over a letter to Walt Whitman, who was about to celebrate his sixty-eighth birthday. 'Dear Walt,' they boldly began--then, appalled at their temerity, hastened to explain:

   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.

To their surprise, the ailing old poet responded promptly and warmly to their birthday greeting. ...

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Worshipping Walt: Lancashire's Whitman disciples: Michael Robertson tells how a group of lower-middle-class men in late-Victorian England found the American poet an inspiration in their desire to reconcile spirituality, science and socialism.(Walt Whi

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