
I hope you will not consider this letter from an utter stranger a liberty. Indeed, I
hardly feel a stranger to you, nor is this the first letter that I have written to
you. My friend Edward Dowden has told me often that you like
new acquaintances or I should rather say friends. And as an old friend I send you an inclosure
which may
interest you. Four years ago I wrote the enclosed draft of a letter which I intended
to copy out and send to you—it has lain in my desk since then—when I had
heard that you were addressed as Mr. Whitman. It speaks
for itself and needs no comment. It is as truly what I wanted to say as that light
is light. The four years which have elapsed have made me love your work four fold
and I can truly say that I have ever spoken as your friend. You know what
hostile criticism
your work sometimes evokes here, and I wage a perpetual war with many friends on
your behalf. But I am glad to say that I have been the means of making your work
known to many who were scoffers at first. The years which have passed have not been
uneventful to me, and I have felt and thought and suffered much in them, and I can
truly say that from you I have had much pleasure and much consolation—and
I do believe that
your open earnest speech has not been thrown away on me or that my life & thoughts
fail to be marked with its impress—I write thus openly because I feel that with you one
must be open. We have just had tonight a hot debate on your genius at the
Fortnightly Club in which I had the privilege of putting
forward my views—I think with success. Do not think me "cheeky" for writing
thus. I only hope we may sometime meet & I shall be able perhaps to say what I
cannot write. Dowden promised to get me a copy of your new edition—and
I hope that for any other work which you may have you will let me always be an early subscriber.
I am sorry that you are not strong. Many of us were hoping to see you in Ireland.
We had arranged to have a meeting for you—I do not know if you like getting letters. If you do I shall only be too happy to send you news of how thought goes among the men I know—
With truest wishes for your health and happiness believe me Your friend Bram Stoker