Abstract

This essay contextualizes and analyzes two previously unrecorded letters from the artist Robert Henri to Horace Traubel. Dating to 1909 and 1913, they broaden what is known about Henri’s relationship with both Whitman and Traubel’s Whitman Fellowship, as well as Traubel’s response to modern art. Building on the work of Ruth Bohan, this essay forwards new insights into Henri’s relationship with Traubel and expands our understanding of Whitman’s influence on Henri’s teaching. Henri was devoted to Whitman. Knowing this, Horace Traubel hoped to bring Henri further into the fellowship Dinners, but this essay finds Henri repeatedly declined to attend and speak and used his classroom instead as the outlet for his Whitman lectures.

Keywords: Walt Whitman, Robert Henri, art, literary history, The Armory Show

How to Cite:

Tye, N., (2024) “Fellowship Dinners and The Armory Show”, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 41(1/2), 37-46. doi: https://doi.org/10.17077/0737-0679.31970