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Walt Whitman to Anne Gilchrist, 10 May 1878

 upa.00037.001_large.jpg Dear friend

Yours rec'd​ , & much pleas'd to hear you are in such satisfactory quarters—there is nothing very new or different with me—Though the rheumatism is not severe—any thing like its first attack—it still keeps its hold—my knees, & indeed whole joint & muscular power are affected—Was down at White Horse Monday & Tuesday, (two perfect days)2—& expect to be down there next Sunday—

—The Staffords are all about as usual—My sister & brother are well—I have rec'd​ Mr Linton's book "Poetry in America"—(it is a Vol:​ of Bohn's Standard Library)—It is a good collection—he gives my picture for frontispiece

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Miss Hillard has returned from Annapolis, after a fine visit, improved still in health3—is at Germantown, at "the Cocoonery"—Nothing in the way of letter lately from England—

—I have written to Herby to-day, to Brooklyn4—As I write I am sitting up in my third story room,—just after 4 p m—my sister down stairs sewing—it is very quiet in the house, almost lonesome—my brother away far in Pennsylvania at his work—& no, or very few visitors lately—The weather is fine day & night, for a rule—I am now going out for an hour two—

Love to all— Walt Whitman

I return the letter—I found it interesting—

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Notes

  • 1. The envelope for this letter bears the address: Mrs Anne Gilchrist | Round Hill Hotel | Northampton | Mass:. It is postmarked: Camden | May | 10 | N.J. [back]
  • 2. May 6 and 7, characterized in Whitman's Commonplace Book as "two fine days" (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Whitman was at Kirkwood on Sunday, May 12. [back]
  • 3. See the letter from Whitman to Louisa Orr Whitman of April 13–14, 1878. [back]
  • 4. See the letter from Whitman to Herbert Gilchrist of May 10, 1878. [back]
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