This is the letter that introduced Walt Whitman as one of the most influential poets in literary history

BY: Adrian Smith

I got myself an assortment of books as a graduation present. Among the pile was Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, long considered one of the greatest pieces of American literature. However, I noticed on the back cover of the book a letter from Ralph Waldo Emerson, a renowned poet in his own right, sent directly to Whitman—instead of the usual literary reviews that take up that space.

Check out what Emerson had to say about Whitman’s poetry here:

https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/american-authors-nineteenth-century/pdf/emerson.pdf