It's no secret that Walt Whitman—a prolific 19th-century writer, poet, and essayist—was gay. But his fan base apparently includes Dracula author Bram Stoker, who sent Whitman some detailed and bizarrely erotic fan letters.

According to the New Jersey Record, Stoker mailed Whitman a letter in 1876 saying he wanted to meet the Leaves of Grass poet. He described his own physical appearance at great length, writing that he was "six-feet two-inches high and 12 stone weight naked and used to be 41 or 42 inches round the chest."

A photograph of Stoker from 1900.

Stoker even added that he had a "big mouth" and "sensitive nostrils."

Was Stoker coming onto Whitman? It's unclear, although unlike Whitman, the Dracula author was married to a woman, had a child, and probably never ever considered the fact that he might've been gay or bisexual.

Meanwhile, Whitman's poetry described men in physically and emotionally intimate relationships, which could've been a solace to closeted gay men of his time.

A young Whitman circa 1875.

But wait, there's more! Apparently, Whitman was used to receiving mail like this from his male contemporaries. According to the Record, he even had a nickname for these intimate thoughts and details sent to him by Manly Men™️: "avowals."

"You could say he had gay fan mail for several decades," Gary Schmidgall, author of Walt Whitman: A Gay Life, told the Record.

The early gay icon of American literature celebrates 200th birthday this May. Sadly, he passed away in 1892, so you'll have to direct your titillating fan letters elsewhere.