Until Paul Salveson started his research into Whitman's unusual literary connections with a group of admirers in Bolton in the 1980s, very few outside the town knew of this extraordinary friendship.

The story began when a group of Bolton friends sent Whitman, who lived from 1819 to 1892, a birthday card in 1887 to which he responded with a personal greeting.

From here on, a friendship blossomed which outlived both Whitman and his early correspondents.

Every year - except for a gap in the 1960s and 1970s - Bolton has celebrated Whitman Day on the poet's birthday, May 31.

This usually takes the form of a walk on the Lancashire moors, readings from his most famous work, Leaves of Grass, and the passing round of Whitman's loving cup brought back from America to form part of an event which is unique in the literary calendar.

Those who take part wear sprigs of lilac, Whitman's favourite flower which was immortalised in his elegy to Abraham Lincoln, When Lilacs Last in the Door Yard Bloom'd.

The Bolton Whitman Group had a wide circle of famous friends including key figures in the early socialist movement, Keir Hardie, Edward Carpenter and Robert Blatchford, and the American soap millionaire Joseph Fels.

Many of the Bolton men in the Whitman group were from the parish church and employed as clerks or minor 'gaffers.' They were mainly attracted by the personality and intellectual powers of the group's mentor, J.W.Wallace, and their interest in itself casts light on the birth of English socialism.

Edward Carpenter's radical sexual politics was a particularly powerful influence and the heady mix of socialism, sexuality, mysticism and love of the open air was irresistible to these impressionable young men.

The town's love affair with the great man is still very much alive and American Whitman scholars are now regular visitors to Bolton Library which has one of the best Whitman archives outside the USA and includes his stuffed canary!

So although Whitman never actuallycame to Bolton - in fact he never even left the United States - it still feels like he breathed the moorland air, strode up to Rivington Pike and joined in his birthday celebrations!

This is a fascinating account of a little known story and startling evidence of the true diversity of English socialism in the late 19th century.

It is available at £9.90 plus £1 postage and packing from Little Northern Books, Bank Top, 90a Radcliffe Road, Golcar, Huddersfield HD7 4EZ.

(Little Northern Books, paperback, £9.90)