Anne Gilchrist (née Burrows; 25 February 182829 November 1885) was an English writer, best known for her connection to American poet

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

Life

She was born in 1828 to John Parker and Henrietta Burrows. Her father died after a horse riding accident when she was eleven and she was brought up in London. She came from a distinguished

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

family, and married the art and literary critic

Alexander Gilchrist Alexander Gilchrist (182830 November 1861), an English author, is known mainly as a biographer of William Etty and of William Blake. Gilchrist's biography of Blake is still a standard reference work about the poet. Gilchrist was born at Newingt ...

in 1851 after a two-year engagement. Five years later, in Chelsea, west London, the couple became next-door neighbours of

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

and

Jane Welsh Carlyle Jane Baillie Carlyle (' Welsh; 14 July 1801 – 21 April 1866) was a Scottish writer and the wife of Thomas Carlyle. She did not publish any work in her lifetime, but she was widely seen as an extraordinary letter writer. Virginia Woolf ca ...

, both of them notable writers. The Gilchrists' marriage, one of intellectual equals, was cut short when Alexander died of

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...

in 1861. Her daughter Beatrice had originally caught the disease and then her son, Percy, suffered it as his sister recovered. Her husband caught the disease from his son. She was left with their four children: Percy, Beatrice, Herbert, and Grace. One of the reasons for the family's move to

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

in 1876 was Beatrice's desire to attend medical school. Beatrice eventually became a physician in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, but she killed herself shortly thereafter. Percy had a successful career developing a new and economic way of making steel and Herbert was a minor painter.

Work

After her husband's death in 1861, Anne completed his '' Life of Blake'' and was an active contributor to magazines. She is perhaps best known for developing a deep attachment to Walt Whitman when she read ''

Leaves of Grass ''Leaves of Grass'' is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. After self-publishing it in 1855, he spent most of his professional life writing, revising, and expanding the collection until his death in 1892. Either six or nine separa ...

'' in 1869, and for writing the first great criticism of that work, ''A Woman's Estimate of Walt Whitman''; their correspondence was initiated through

William Michael Rossetti William Michael Rossetti (25 September 1829 – 5 February 1919) was an English writer and critic. Early life Born in London, Rossetti was a son of exiled Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti and his wife Frances Polidori, Frances Rossetti '' ...

. When she eventually travelled to Philadelphia, in 1876, she met Whitman and they formed a lasting friendship. She moved to

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

in 1878, but returned to England the following year. In 1883, she published a biography of the writer Mary Lamb.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilchrist, Anne English literary critics British women literary critics English biographers 1828 births 1885 deaths 19th-century English journalists English women journalists English expatriates in the United States

Life

Work

References

Further reading

External links