On 26 April 1888 Walt Whitman told his young friend Horace Traubel that "I advise everybody to read Stedman. Stedman is an education. I do not deny him power." Whitman's recommendation of the New York-based poet, critic, anthologist, and literary scholar was not, however, unqualified. Speaking particularly of Stedman's criticism, Whitman commented, "But I do not think him conclusive-beyond him is another Stedman whom he never seems able to reach." The problem, Whitman observed, is that "Stedman always feels that he must be judicial--the dominance of that principle has held him down from many a noble flight. Stedman seems often just about to get off for a long voyage and stops himself on the shore." Nevertheless, Whitman considered Stedman "our most generous man of letters" and "our best man in his speciality--criticism." At the time of Whitman's conversation with Traubel, Stedman had published two critical studies that had become standards...