I went down deep into the rabbit hole to interview Maria Popova recently. She’s the wonder behind The Marginalian (formerly called Brainpickings) and one of her 3 most formative books is ‘Leaves of Grass,’ originally self-published in 1855 by total unknown 35-year-old newspaperman Walt Whitman.
I bought a paperback of ‘Leaves of Grass’ and began flipping through it and the poems hit me—wow. They were rubber mallets to the forehead! Whitman tackles self-love, self-awareness, sensuality, and homoeroticism, among many other topics, in ways that were unheard of 169 years ago. No wonder the collection of poems, endlessly revised and re-edited until his death 37 years later, is often considered *the* classic of American poetry.
As I was researching the book I was somewhat shocked to discover that Walt Whitman is considered the inventor of the ‘book blurb’—you know, those glowing reviews slapped on every book telling you how good it is? Nobody had done that till Walt wrote to Total Intellectual Stud Ralph Waldo Emerson saying his work had inspired ‘Leaves of Grass’ and Emerson wrote him a glowing letter back—perhaps the greatest gratitude letter of all time!—which Whitman shrewdly excerpted onto the spine of the second edition, like this:
I Greet You at the Beginning of A Great Career R.W. Emerson
Not bad! Maria told me that in her inexhaustible research on Whitman she discovered Emerson was never asked for permission and was actually quite pissed about this! But they made up years later.
Still, that original letter, from Emerson to Whitman, is a thing of beauty, and it is credited with spiking the popularity of ‘Leaves of Grass’ to its place of preeminence today.
Here’s the letter in full with three somewhat-illegible pics below compliments of the Library of Congress followed by the text in full:
Dear Sir,
I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of "Leaves of Grass." I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit & wisdom that America has yet contributed. I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy. It meets the demand I am always making of what seemed the sterile & stingy Nature, as if too much handiwork or too much lymph in the temperament were making our western wits fat & mean. I give you joy of your free & brave thought. I have great joy in it. I find incomparable things said incomparably well, as they must be. I find the courage of treatment, which so delights us, & which large perception only can inspire. I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. It had the best merits, namely, of fortifying & encouraging.
I did not know until I, last night, saw the book advertised in a newspaper, that I could trust the name as real & available for a post-office. I wish to see my benefactor, & have felt much like striking my tasks, & visiting New York to pay you my respects.
R.W. Emerson
Letter to Walter Whitman July 21, 1855
Nice, isn't it! What's the takeaway?
Just that words have power and letters of gratitude are so rare these days. If you send one, you never know, you just might change someone's life.
So in a way this letter is a little reminder to tell somebody who's doing a great job that they're doing a great job. Doesn't cost a lot! But perhaps changes a great deal.
Have a wonderful week everyone,
Neil
Did that whet your appetite for some poetry? Here is a silly, if perennially prescient, favorite from Roald Dahl.
Every other week, I send an email out with an article I’ve written, or one of my favorite speeches, essays, or poems. No ads, no sponsors, no spam, and nothing for sale. Just a dose of inspiration or beauty!
