SENDING LOVE TO FRIEND AND GAY RIGHTS ADVOCATE WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892)
Address panel Signed, addressed in holograph to writer and progressive activist Edward Carpenter: "Edward Carpenter / Millthorpe / near Chesterfield / England / Walt Whitman / Camden N.J. / America." 172x289 mm, 6¾x11½ inches; few small holes in margins, side and lower edges irregularly trimmed or torn, folds, cancelled 10-cent postage stamp featuring profile of Thomas Jefferson at upper right.
Camden, 7 December [1888]
The letter that likely once accompanied the present lot -- written by Whitman on the 6th and 7th of December, 1888 -- was sent "even if but for good love & memories to you -- for I have them always for you," enclosing a copy of his November Boughs (1888) [not present] (The Correspondence, ed. Miller [New York: New York University Press, 1961-77], 4:244-45).
Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) was a British socialist philosopher, poet, and activist who strove to reform society's attitudes toward sexuality and the treatment of animals.
