When I Read the Book: Whitman, Burns & Carnegie
In the early 1880s, Walt Whitman acquired a copy of Poems, Songs and Letters, Being the Complete Works of Robert Burns. Whitman held the Scottish poet in high regard, advising a friend, “don’t skip Burns: Burns will do things for you no one else can do.” He kept this volume for nearly a decade, during which time he underlined, critiqued, and added to its contents. He believed he could see Burns’ heart and “drops of his blood on every page.” But when someone asked for his copy, the poet replied, “My Burns is not of particular value. As I have said, it is not an old copy. I don’t think I care to part with it. It contains a number of Burns clippings pinned in by me– a few such notes– but nothing beyond.”
Whitman eventually gave away the book in 1892, the year of his death, to his close friend and New York diamond merchant John H. Johnston. In 1902, Johnston in turn sent the volume with “Whitmanic spirit” to the man he saw as most deserving: Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was a champion for local libraries, and in 1901 began a personal library at Skibo Castle in Scotland. Johnston’s letter explains how fitting a gift this was firstly because of Carnegie’s Scottish connection to Burns, but more importantly because Whitman’s work was “indispensable to every gentleman’s library.”
Study of this unique edition, not seen in over 100 years, demonstrates how the lives and intellectual interests of these key figures of 19th-century New York intertwined. It also evinces how books carry enormous meaning about their owners, not just their authors. Whitman’s idiosyncratic annotations give us insight into his mind, revealing both inspiration for his writing and growing concern for how he and his work would be remembered.
When I read the book, the biography famous,
And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man’s life?
And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life?
(As if any man really knew aught of my life
Why even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life,
Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections
I seek for my own use to trace out here.)
“When I Read the Book,” 1881-1882 edition of Leaves of Grass
Click inserts and annotations below to explore Whitman’s Burns Book.
At Home in Camden
After suffering a stroke in 1873, Whitman moved into the home of his younger brother George Washington Whitman at 431 Stevens Street, Camden, New Jersey, where he remained before moving to his own home in the same town in 1884. Holding the Burns book close to him in Camden in the latter part of his life, Whitman seems to have been preoccupied with the biographical preface and Burns' legacy because his own was on his mind, making his deciphering of the text that much more understandable on a level beyond admiration.
A Fitting Gift
Transcription: Walt Whitman's copy of Robert Burns Works Presented to Andrew Carnegie
Whitman claimed that he did not think much of his copy of Burns, but nonetheless would not part with it for just anyone. Fitting, then, that it should end up in the library of Andrew Carnegie, as the two had several interactions in the poet's lifetime. In 1887, Carnegie attended one of Whitman's lectures on Abraham Lincoln at Madison Square Theater where he recited "Oh Captain! My Captain!" Following the event, Carnegie donated $350 to the poet and became an admirer and correspondant. In 1888, Whitman wrote to the industrialist, "Thanks for the books, (three) wh' have arrived, & will be treasured. When in [Philadelphia] come over here & see me-- I have a copy of Leaves of Grass for you-- (would mail it if I knew the right address)--." Carnegie later donated another $50 to the fund that paid for Whitman's nurse and after Whitman's death continued to write and speak in favor of Whitman for the rest of his lifetime.
Tam O'Shanter
In 1790, Burns wrote the narrative poem "Tam o'Shanter," the title of which numerous golf clubs and restaurants across the United States adopted as their own. This silk ribbon with a portrait of Burns served as a bookmark, likely inserted by Whitman in 1888. Similar commemorative ephemera dedicated to Whitman would appear after his death.
Collecting History
This six-page letter written by John H. Johnston to Andrew Carnegie demonstrates how Whitman captured the spirit of his fellow New Yorkers. In his explanation of why this copy of Burns should belong to Carnegie, Johnson recounts a previous interaction with Charles Anderson Dana, "an ardent Whitmanite" who served as the managing editor of both the New York Tribune and The Sun. Both men agreed that Whitman should be considered the third greatest name in literature, behind only the Bible and Shakespeare. Johnson also adds that he wanted to send the book "in a silver casket made with Burns' + Whitman's portraits on the front of it in repoussé," but he could not afford it.
Transcription:
New York, Jan 22d 1902
My Dear Mr Carnegie;
I notice in the papers that your [sic] making up a library for yourself at Skibo, and I feel that the man who is filling the hearts of thousands of his fellow men with joy all over this blessed land in the prospect of having all the books to read that their hearts can ask for, should have in his own library the choicest books that his own heart could desire.
I wrote you that I had what I considered the rarest of Whitman relics which I wanted you to see. It is the copy of Burns’ poems that Walt used the last 12 years of his life – and I feel that this rightly belongs to one who appreciates Burns as none but a Scotchman to the manor born can. The only regret I have is that I cannot afford to send it in a silver casket made with Burns’ + Whitman’s portraits on the front of it in repoussé, but I feel sure you will appreciate it, and enjoy looking it over many times as I have done during the last nine years that I have owned it. It is amazing- the growth of Whitman day by day – only yesterday I received a new book about Whitman from London. In 93 I prevailed upon Charles A. Dana [Editor and part owner of the New York Sun] to re-read Leaves of Grass, and it made him an ardent Whitmanite, and one year to a week before he died he sent for me to come and see him- It was Saturday afternoon and he was overwhelmed with the Sunday edition of the Sun, and I said “I forgot that this is your busiest day and I will drop in Monday Mr. Dana.” No, Mr. Johnston, he said “sit down and wait ten minutes and I am going to tell you something that will please you.” The Sanctum was sure empty and then he turned in his chair and said “Mr Johnston some time ago the Editor of one of our magazines wrote and asked me to find him the twelve greatest names in literature that I regarded as indispensable to every gentleman’s library table for frequent use. - Well: I made out the list. I put the Bible first and Shakespeare next of course- now then I’m not going to tell you the whole list today for I don’t want it known yet, but I thought you would be pleased when I tell you that Walt Whitman is in the list!! and I said “Well: Mr. Dana- I don’t know where you have placed Walt in the list - whether no 3 or no 10, but the Charles A. Dana of 50 years and a hundred years from now will place him No 3 for all the world and no 2 for the United States” and I believe it, and when I am worth a million I will put a Bronze Bust of Walt in a hundred cities of the United States, Canada + England, for I feel that since the Man of Galilee nothing has come to us so pregnant for the welfare of mankind as the poems of Walt Whitman- But I will stop preaching and say that I have an axe to grind, and I ask you to accept the volume in the Whitmanic Spirit with which it is sent- Believe me my dear Mr. Carnegie. Very sincerely yours,
J.H. Johnston
The Critic
Tucked into the book is Walt Whitman's for The Critic, published on December 16, 1882, shortly before he obtained this book. Whitman writes, "No poet on record so full bequeaths the reminiscence of his own personal magnetism, nor illustrates more pointedly how one's verses, by time and reading, can so curiously fuse with the versifier's own life and death, and give immortal light and shade to all." Whitman sent in this article with a request for $20 but received $15; after making a few revisions and additions, he then republished the article as "Robert Burns as Poet and Person" in The North American Review in 1886. This second article is also inserted into the back of the book.
Burns and Shelley
Transcription: Burns at death had not completed his 38th year. Shelley had not completed his 29th (30th).
Here Whitman notes the respective ages of Burns and another poetry great Percy Bysshe Shelley at their times of death (38 and 30). By contrast, Whitman lived to be 72. Of the two authors he wrote, "Shelley is interesting to me as Burns is, chiefly as a person: I read with most avidity not their poems but their lives."
Macmillan & Co
Whitman adds the New York address of Macmillan & Co, 112 Fourth Street, and a later 1889 edition date. This attention to publishing details could relate to Whitman's training as a printer and the fact that he produced his own books without the aid of a publisher.
Endpaper Note
Transcription: This Vol: I have had with me for 8 or 9 years (after trying many edns [editions] this suits me best upon the whole.) I often take it up - open almost at random - seems to me more than a novel - write this April 20 '89 - Dwell many times on the Biographical Preface - especially the last page, pp: 36, '7 and '8.
These three pages specifically mentioned by Whitman detail Burns' final days and why his life and work so captured the public: "Of Burns, the man and poet, what is there left to be said? During his lifetime he was regarded as a phenomenon; and now, when he has been seventy years in his grave, he is a phenomenon still."
Walt Whitman's Signature
Whitman prominently signs his name twice in the first pages of the book, making his mark and claim of ownership. Ironically, when James D. Law asked Horace Traubel to obtain Whitman's copy of Burns for him in 1891 (the request Whitman rejected), Law wrote, "I wish you could get the Poet to write his name on the title-page of any good edition of Burns, if he won't part (loan) with his own copy. Whitman's Burns should be in such a collection as I am forming. I have some very distinguished books - five at least from America - and I should value none greater than Whitman's."
Burns Suppers
This 1889 London Scotman article refers to the celebrations known as Burns suppers held every year since 1801 to today to celebrate the beloved bard's birthday. During these events, people eat haggis, drink whisky, dress up as Burns himself or his familiar characters, and recite his poetry. Andrew Carnegie attended such a celebration in 1888 held by the New-York Scottish Society in Chickering Hall downtown. Carnegie gave a rousing eulogy for Burns: "No matter how short a list of the world's men of genius we may prepare, his is the name that could not possibly be omitted." Whitman also made his list in the same speech, referred to by Carnegie as "perhaps the greatest genius, with the exception of Franklin, America has ever produced."
Transcription:
Honoring the Birthday of Burns, London Scotman 1889: In Leslie, Fifeshire, the people have an annual masquerade in honor of the birthday of Burns. This year twenty-four plowmen, farmers and merchants paraded the streets, dressed in the costumes representing as many characters from Burns' work. The Old Nick, Burns himself, Tam O'Shanter, Bonnie Jean and Souter Johnnie were among the characters represented.
Burns in Edinburgh, 1787
Transcription:
Boston Transcript September 20 '89: One of the most interesting reproductions to be seen at the print sellers' now is a Goupil photograveure after Charles Martin Hardie's painting of Burns in Edinburgh, 1787.' This remarkable historical picture was finished this year and placed on exhibition at a dealer's gallery in Edinburgh during the summer. The artist is an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, and the size of his canvas is eight feet seven inches by five feet seven inches. The scene selected by the artist is a meeting of the literati and other celebrities of Edinburgh in the Duchess of Gordon's drawing-room where Burns is reading to the company his poem of 'The Winter Night.' The scores of faces are portraits, and the gathering included such people as William Creech, Burns's publisher, ("O, Willy was a witty wight"); Harry Erskine; Rev. Dr. Blair; Henry Mackenzie ("The Man of Feeling"); Dr. Adam Ferguson; William Tytler; the Earl of Glencairn; the Dowager Countess of Glencairn; Miss Peggy Chalmers; Alexander Nasmyth, the artist; the blind Dr. Blacklock; Professor Dugard Stewart; the eccentric Lord Monboddo and his daughter, "the beautiful Miss Burnes" and Jane, Duchess of Gordon, the leader of Edinburgh society. There is hardly one of these people to whom Burns has not addressed a poem; they were his friends and backers. This picture is charming for its true sentiment, and one is not surprised to learn that the price of the original was $30,000. It is said to look like an Orchardson.
Burns' Birthplace
Burns' birthplace became a museum in 2011 and Whitman's birthplace was designated a New York Historic Site in 1957.
Transcription:
Boston Transcript May 16 '90: Every summer thousands of visitors make pilgrimages to the cottage in which Robert Burns was born, near Alloway Kirk and the backs o' Doon. They are shown the room in which the poet first saw the light, as well as the "original" furniture used by Burns' parents. Will it be believed that all the genuinely original furniture of the cottage was sold off by public roup in September, 1843? most of it being now in the possession of a gentleman in Manchester, who wants a thousand pounds for the following articles: The father's chair, the mother's chair, the poet's chair, Pembroke table with flap, another without flap, the mother's work table, chest of drawers, eight day clock, corner cupboard, drinking cup of wood, ale horn, table bell, tea cady, toddy ladle, twelve chairs supplied by "the miller Goudie," the sword worn by Burns as an exciseman, and the probe he used on his preventative excursions. All these are authenticated by letters from men who had seen them before 1843. The seller throws in five visitor's books- from 1829 to 1843- containing 7,000 autographs, as well as a letter of the poet's.
"Poetified" Portrait
This article describes the portrait of Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth in 1787, now in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland. The author believes the painting truthfully represents the poet as "rugged." It is interesting to consider this in comparison to the multitude of photographs of Whitman, who also sought to present himself as a rugged workingman.
Transcription:
Boston Transcript March 13 '89 report on "Odd Volume, Display" by "Listener" : The copy of one of Robert Burns's letters to "Clarinda" must be a treasure; but the Listener was more interested in the portrait of Burns, from a painting of Nasmyth's, which went with an autograph copy of one of Burns' excise notes. This portrait must represent the poetic ploughman as he really looked. The common portrait of Burns is weak, namby-pamby, sugary in comparison. Here is a rugged, forceful face, which does not altogether belie Burns's peasant origin, which has a spice of deviltry in it, and which looks, taking it all around, like the man Burns whom the world knows so well. A portrait of Byron, close by, reminds one that it was a trick of the artists some three-quarters of a century ago and there-abouts, even more universal than it is now, to idealize, to poetify, their subjects. The accepted pictures of Burns and Byron, one would say, were to be accepted for a moment not fit as representing them.
Burns' Daughter
These two obituaries, one from The New York Times, announce the 1886 death of Robert Burns' illegitimate daughter, Helen Armstrong. Raised by her mother Nelly Hyslop in Moffat, Scotland, she was "said to have borne a strong resemblance to Burns ... Nor was the likeness confined to physical points; in her mental powers Helen showed a strain of the poetic blood." In 1890 Whitman claimed to have fathered six children, but this has never been verified.
19th Century Scrapbooking
The ad hoc construction of this thoroughly read book can be attributed to Whitman's abilities as a bookmaker as well as a fashion for scrapbooking that developed in the 19th century. In addition to balancing insertions in the front and back cover, Whitman has delicately affixed article cut outs to the interior pages with adhesive and in some instances with thin carpenter nails. The added thickness necessitated having the purple ribbon wrapped around its cover to hold the contents in place.
Letter of Critique
This 1895 letter from T.D. Westness to Thomas Dixon, both identified as English admirers of Whitman, reveals how Whitman's published critiques of Burns augmented people's scholarly discourse. It is unknown how, when, or by whom this letter was inserted into the back of the book, but it serves an interesting comparison to Carnegie's discussion of Whitman's articles in a letter in 1890: "The article you refer to was one of the very finest tributes ever paid to Burns. I was very ill in bed, recovering from Typhoid, and when the reader came to one passage, -- the passage where he (Whitman) sums up Burns: "The kindest flesh and blood chield", etc., -- I called to my friend to stop and shed copious tears. It takes a genius to know and feel a genius,-- and Whitman knew Burns to the core."
Transcription:
333 Liverpool Rd
Islington
Sep. 13. 95
Dear Dixon,
On (and after, I suppose, for some time) the above date, our address will be as above. The short Criticisms on Burns you sent me last time, by W. Whitman is a piece of as sound criticism as I ever read. I do not consider much of Carlyles criticism, either of Burns or anyone else. Criticism is, however, an insidious procedure at the best, and even Whitman's is not free from the inevitable stain - it is painful to me to see a progressive being appointed to a place and his limits assigned. Criticism is, however, valuable if it really indicate [sic] the precise value of the man or his place of life. - It is perfectly true, I believe, that Burns had 'little or no spirituality' - but that, I should think, simply means, that his spiritual nature was not awakened properly. Carlyle talks too much nonsense about him - Both he and his hero were brought up in an atmosphere of raging Scotch theology, and failed to shake themselves free from its deliriating effects - I suppose both he and Burns may be better for some time cooling in clay - The two worst faults by Burns, were perhaps first his outrageous vanity and his religion, which was more vaporising [sic] sentimentality. One might have supposed it to have been got from a French dancing master - Its Scotch parentage however is too discernible - sheet full - TDW
Preserving Burns in Place
These newspaper clippings from the 1880s deal with physical manifestations of Burns: the unveiling of a marble bust at Westminster Abbey, London; the erection of a bronze monument in Albany, New York; and the preservation of the poet's home in Dumfries, Scotland. All across the Atlantic and costing a good expense, these clippings show how beloved and present in the public's mind Burns was nearly a century after his death.
Transcription:
April '85: The Robert Burns memorial, unveiled a few days since in Westminster Abbey, is on the screen on the East side of the Poet's Corner, at the right of the Shakespeare Monument and above that of Thomson, Southey's being at a corresponding elevation at the left. The bust, which is after Nasmyth's portrait, bears merely the name, with the date of the birth and death of the poet. The list of contributors to the memorial fund numbered 20,000, who sent their shillings from nearly every part of the world.
Phil. Press February '86: The late Mary MacPherson, of Albany, left to that city money for the erection of a Burns monument.
Bobby Burns' Dumfries House '86: An appeal has been addressed by the directors of the Dumfries and Maxwelltown Industrial School to Burns Clubs throughout the country for subscriptions to enable them to have executed the necessary repairs on the house in which Burns lived during the latter years of his life. The house was left to the institution by the son of the poet Colonel W.N. Burns, on certain conditions, and it has now been found necessary to rebuild part of the house.
Unveiling a Statue of Burns: Albany, N.Y., August: The $25,000 bronze statue of Burns was unveiled in Washington Park yesterday for the presence of a large number of people. The statue, which was cast in Philadelphia, is the gift of Miss Mary McPherson, a rich lady of Scotch birth, who died two years ago. Among those present were the following Philadelphians: Ex-Mayor Smith, James Irvine, Joseph Ferguson, Frank Devlin, John M. Halkett, John Shedden, Chief William Mushet, G. G. Hogg, and George Goodfellow.
Burns' Living Legacy
The London Times article of 1883 assures readers that "Burns has still representatives in the flesh who cherish his memory," namely the descendants of his third son James Burns including four great-grandchildren. In 1890 Whitman claimed to have fathered six children, but this has never been verified. He was survived by sisters Mary and Hannah and brothers George and Edward.
Transcription:
It is pleasant to know that Burns has still representatives in the flesh who cherish his memory. His third son, Lieutenant-Colonel James Glencairn Burns left a daughter by his first marriage, named Sarah, who married Dr. Berkeley Hutchinson of Cheltenham, and who has a son and three daughters. These are the great grandchildren of the poet, and are his only direct and lawful descendants. James Burns was twice married and by his second marriage he also left a daughter, who is still Miss Burns, and who resides at Cheltenham with her half-sister.