The Letters of Anne Gilchrist and Walt Whitman

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'.