Louisa Van Velsor Whitman to Walt Whitman, 17 October [1867]
duk.00504.001.jpg
Oct 17th1
My dear Walt
1867
the post
man has gone bye and
no letters, and its being
thursday i feel worried
very much for fear it
is gone as i dident get
it yesterday my usuall
day i thought i would
get it to day i wanted
very much to hear from
you and likewise i was
very short of money but
if you have sent it it
is taken sure i think of
every thing that is unlikely
to happen O walt if you
are sick or any thing
duk.00504.002.jpg
the matter i hope you will
let me know immedtely
as i shall be very uneasy
till i hear i wrote A letter
last week to you walter
i suppose you got it
it is too bad if the letter
is gone i have been waching
the letter man and he s past
and no letter i feel real
bad my lameness is not
much better yet i am
taking medicine from
a doctor a very good one
i think the one matty2 had for
sis3 he has great practice
and has a very good name
he said if this dident help
me he dident know as any
thing would but he thought
this would
matt dont hear from Jeff4 very often they are here yet5
Notes
- 1. This letter dates to October 17, 1867. Louisa Van Velsor Whitman dated the letter "October 17," and Richard Maurice Bucke assigned the year 1867. In his calendar of letters, Edwin Haviland Miller included no letter dated October 17, 1867, but he did reference a letter from Louisa Van Velsor Whitman to Walt Whitman that he dated to October 7, 1867 (Walt Whitman, The Correspondence [New York: New York University Press, 1961–77], 1:378). No other letter from Louisa Van Velsor Whitman could date to October 7, 1867, so Miller's date must be an error. Louisa stated that she was writing on a Thursday, the day of the week on which October 17 fell in 1867. Additional confirmation for the letter's date is that Louisa's October 20, 1867 letter to Walt—which is concerned also with $10 that has gone missing in the mail—refers to this letter as the one she wrote "thursday last." [back]
- 2. Martha Mitchell Whitman (1836–1873), known as "Mattie," was the wife of Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Whitman, Walt Whitman's brother. She and Jeff had two daughters, Manahatta and Jessie Louisa. In 1868, Mattie and her daughters moved to St. Louis to join Jeff, who had moved there in 1867 to assume the position of Superintendent of Water Works. Mattie suffered a throat ailment that would lead to her death in 1873. For more on Mattie, see Randall H. Waldron, "Whitman, Martha ("Mattie") Mitchell (1836–1873)," ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). See also Randall H. Waldron, ed., Mattie: The Letters of Martha Mitchell Whitman (New York: New York University Press, 1977), 1–26. [back]
- 3. The nickname "Sis" refers to Jessie Louisa Whitman (1863–1957), the daughter of Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Whitman and Martha Mitchell "Mattie" Whitman, Walt Whitman's brother and sister-in-law. Jessie and her sister Manahatta "Hattie" were both favorites of their uncle Walt. The nickname "Sis" was given first to Manahatta but was passed to her younger sister Jessie Louisa when Manahatta became "Hattie." [back]
- 4. Thomas Jefferson Whitman (1833–1890), known as "Jeff," was the son of Louisa Van Velsor Whitman and Walter Whitman, Sr., and Walt Whitman's favorite brother. In early adulthood he worked as a surveyor and topographical engineer. In the 1850s he began working for the Brooklyn Water Works, at which he remained employed through the Civil War. In 1867 Jeff became Superintendent of Water Works in St. Louis and became a nationally recognized name in civil engineering. For more on Jeff, see "Whitman, Thomas Jefferson (1833–1890)." [back]
- 5. The postscript appears on the first page of the letter, beneath the date and above the salutation. [back]