John Townsend Trowbridge, though one of Whitman's earliest and oldest friends, has not received adequate recognition for his loyal yet discriminating service. Passing reference, it is true, is meted out to him in critical biographies of Whitman or in an occasional article. But even the latest Whitman study accords to Trowbridge only a few pages in which he is associated with the English critic, Edward Carpenter. In consequence the following survey is an attempt to throw added light upon the nature and extent of this relationship.