Henry and Walt

One of my favorite stories below, on Walt's bday.  I would have LOVED to have been a fly on the wall, no matter how dull and awkward the conversation might have been!


From "Meet Henry David Thoreau" posting on Facebook (aka Richard Smith)

Thoreau and Whitman met once, in November of 1856. Thoreau was on an extended surveying job in Perth Amboy, New Jersey and Walt was living at his mother's house in Brooklyn. On November 10 Thoreau and Bronson Alcott (who was holding Conversations in New York City) went to the Whitman home to meet the poet. They had another companion with them, Sarah Tyndale, a prominent abolitionist. Both Alcott and Thoreau had read "Leaves of Grass" and were mightily impressed with it. Thoreau himself had written that it was "some of the best reading" he had done in some time. Thoreau was 39 years old, Walt was 37; both men were, by literary standards, failures.

When they arrived at the Whitman home they were met, "kindly yet awkwardly" by Walt. He took the trio up to his bedchamber, a room he shared with his mentally retarded brother Eddie. Alcott noted pictures of Hercules, Bacchus and a satyr pasted to the bedroom wall, calling it Walt's "pantheon" and wondered which one represented Whitman the best.

It seems that, not surprisingly, Alcott did most of the talking. He tried to get Thoreau and Walt to talk to each other but both were reserved; Alcott later wrote that Whitman and Thoreau had eyed each other “like two beasts, each wondering what the other would do, whether to snap or run.” Soon after the two writers warmed to each other as they discussed Hindusim and poetry. Walt was very curious to know what the Concordians thought of his book of "pomes" (as he pronounced it): "He is very curious of criticism on himself or his book, inviting it from all quarters, nor suffering the conversation to stray very wide away from Walt's godhead..." (Bronson Alcott, Journal; 1857)

Thoreau himself later wrote, "I did not get far in conversation with him — two more being present — and among the few things which I chanced to say, I remember that one was, in answer to him as representing America, that I did not think much of America or of politics, and so on, which may have been somewhat of a damper to him...Since I have seen him, I find that I am not disturbed by any brag or egoism in his book. He may turn out the least of a braggart of all, having a better right to be confident. He is a great fellow."

The visit lasted about two hours. Before they parted company Thoreau and Whitman exchanged gifts; Thoreau gave the Poet a copy of his "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers." In return, Walt presented Thoreau with a copy of the 1856 (second edition) of "Leaves of Grass.