Yours just received (with the 10—many thanks—)—the kind invitation reiterated2—&c—I am in pretty fair condition generally, but unable to walk or get around, except very small stretches, & with effort—somehow feel averse to leaving this shanty of mine—where I am probably getting along better than you think—
Mrs Gilchrist's essay has appeared in the To-Day—probably she will send it to you—if not, I will send you mine—It is a noble paper—I have a little poem to appear in the Outing, perhaps in the forthcoming number3—Mary Smith & all the family (our Germantown friends) start for Europe to-morrow to be gone over a year.
As I write it is a delightful day—temperature perfect—I take the car to the ferry, & get out on the river every pleasant day.
Walt WhitmanCorrespondent:
The naturalist John Burroughs
(1837–1921) met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After
returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a decades-long
correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman.
However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged,
curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or
devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and
Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting
the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs,
see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).