The Collected Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman

Book excerpt: The Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman present the correspondence between famous American poet and British author who wrote the first great criticism of Whitman's monumental work "Leaves of Grass". Their correspondence was initiated through William Michael Rossetti, English writer and critic who edited Whitman's works. Gilchrist traveled to the States in 1876 where she met Whitman and they formed a lasting friendship. The correspondence started with Gilchrist's letter to Whitman in the form of a critical essay she wrote in his defense called A Woman's Estimate of Walt Whitman.