When he was 22, Stoker read 鈥淟eaves of Grass,鈥� Whitman鈥檚 poetry collection that would change the young novelist鈥檚 life. So enthralled with the American poet was he that Stoker penned a nearly 2,000-word letter to Whitman describing himself and pouring out his love for the poet and his works.
鈥淚 have to thank you for many happy hours, for I have read your poems with my door locked late at night, and I have read them on the seashore where I could look all round me and see no more sign of human life than the ships out at sea: and here I often found myself waking up from a reverie with the book lying open before me,鈥� he wrote.
He closed, 鈥淚 have been more candid with you 鈥� have said more about myself to you than I have ever said to any one before.鈥�
That letter began a surprising literary friendship that lasted until Whitman鈥檚 death.
