The Broadway, A London Magazine

In 1868, the first British edition of Whitman's work, Poems of Walt Whitman edited by William M. Rossetti, was published in London. In that same year, Robert Buchanan, a British poet and critic, published an enthusiastic review of the 1867 edition of Leaves of Grass in the new London-based Broadway magazine, "miscellany of original literature in poetry and prose." While the magazine published mostly British writers, popular American writers were also included, such as Mark Twain, Alice and Phoebe Cary, R.H. Stoddard, and Moncure Conway. Whitman was invited by the editor of the Broadway to contribute a poem to the magazine in the midst of publicity about the British edition and Buchanan's positive review. In response, Whitman sent five numbered poems under the title, "Whispers of Heavenly Death," poems that would eventually become a part of a larger cluster that Whitman developed for Passage to India (1871). Whitman noted that he received $50.00 in payment for the poems, although he was hoping for $120.00. Eager for a British audience, Whitman may have hoped to publish additional poems in the Broadway, but the magazine ceased publication in 1872.

Poems

"Whispers of Heavenly Death." The Broadway, A London Magazine 10 (October 1868): 21-22. "Whispers of Heavenly Death" was the title given to a collection of five numbered poems first published in Broadway:

• "1." Retitled "Whispers of Heavenly Death" and reprinted as part of a larger cluster in Passage to India (1871).

• "2." Retitled "Darest Thou Now O Soul" and reprinted as part of a larger cluster in Passage to India (1871).

• "3." Retitled "A Noiseless Patient Spider" and reprinted as part of a larger cluster in Passage to India (1871).

• "4." Retitled "The Last Invocation" and reprinted as part of a larger cluster in Passage to India (1871).

• "5." Retitled "Pensive and Faltering" and reprinted as part of a larger cluster in Passage to India (1871).

Bibliography

Blodgett, Harold. Walt Whitman in England. New York: Russell and Russell, 1934; reissued 1973.

Blodgett, Harold W., and Sculley Bradley, eds. Leaves of Grass: Comprehensive Reader's Edition. New York: New York University Press, 1965.

Loving, Jerome. Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Myerson, Joel. Walt Whitman: A Descriptive Bibliography. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993.