Identity:
W. H. Wilkins, novelist and biographer, was the editor/publisher of the monthly journal The Albemarle.
Life:
Wilkins was known to JW around 1891/92 at which time The Albemarle came into being. Whistler was the first artist to be asked to submit a lithograph to the new journal. Chelsea Rags (C.26) was published in The Abermarle, vol. 1, no. 1, in January 1892 (#10502). In February the journal advertised that extra impressions of the lithograph could be obtained for 6 pence 'upon application to the Editors'. In May further mounted impressions were advertised: 'Mounted proofs of Mr. Whistler's 'Song on Stone', printed on India paper, may be obtained, price half-a-guinea each.'
Bibliography:
Spink, Nesta R., The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, gen. eds Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi, Chicago, 1998.