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  Dear Whitman,

Some while ago I received your kind present of the 2 vols.​ —Leaves of Grass & Specimen Days: recieved them, I am certain you will believe, with extreme pleasure, & with a grateful sense of your continuing to remember me across a somewhat long lapse of years. To be remembered by Walt Whitman   is what any man shd​ be proud of, & none is so more than I.

I have read the Specimen Days vol.​ right thro: finding various new things, & continual pleasure in reviewing my acquaintance with the old ones. Am extremely pleased to find in this copy of the book something wh.​ is absent even from Mrs Gilchrist's copy—the photographs of your mother & father. If you were blessed with an unsurpassably good mother, I can with truth say the same of myself. My mother is still with us—aged nearly 85: health & facul ties sound on the whole, but naturally bowed & stricken with the weight of years.

I have also scanned with a good deal of attention (that of complete re-reading) my old & constant admiration, the Leaves of Grass vol.​ I observe that some edition (I think the Philadelphia edition is named, but my vol.​ is not under my hand at the moment for reference) is mentioned as the only final & complete form of Leaves of Grass. The vol.​ with wh.​ you favoured me is not the Philadelphia edition, but I am in hopes that it may none the less be regarded as complete.

 

I am glad to note in this country from time to time symptoms of the increasing appreciation of your works: especially something written by Ruskin, & the Sonata from the Lincoln Dirge.

Accept as heretofore the affectionate respect & regard of

Yours always W M Rossetti   from Rossetti | Jan 1 '85 see notes July 6 & 8 1888