Brooklyn
Oct 15th 1863
Dear Walt,
Mother received a letter from you yesterday1 I got one the day before.2 Mother did not let me see her letter3 but Mat says that she understands that you say that you think about coming home. I hope dear Walt, that you will come and that soon I think if you should come just now you might be able to do Andrew considerable good He is in a very bad way and I really fear, under the present circumstances that he will not last long. Dear Walt I wish that I could do something more for Andrew, but I have to work all the time, almost day and night and another thing I think he would be guided more by your advice than any one elses That damed infernal robber the doctor4 that he has been with (Andrew has paid him $95 and been getting worse all the time) told Andrew yesterday that he must not come there again till he brought him $45 more. Only think of it. The infernal son of a bitch. I would like to hang him for a thousand years, ten times a second. I dont care anything about it for the good that I think that he could do Andrew but that he Andrew thinks that perhaps if he could pay him $45 he could do something for him. The very fact that the scoundrel wants the money in advance is enough Dear Walt do come home if only for a short time And unless you come quite soon you certainly will never see Andrew alive.5 Will you write me at once if you can come.
Mother Mat and Sis are all suffering from bad colds, Mother particularly I think is failing rapidly. I do so wish that I could see you and have a good talk abt family affairs I am in an awful hurry or would write more. To day I have to go through the whole line of conduit
Jeff
Notes
- 1. See Whitman's letter to
Louisa Van Velsor Whitman from October 13,
1863. [back]
- 2. Walt Whitman's letter
to which Jeff refers is not extant. [back]
- 3. On September 10 (?),
1863, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman had instructed Walt Whitman to "write on a piece
of paper loose from the letter if you say anything you dont want all to read"
(Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Books, Manuscript, and
Special Collections Library). It is hard to say why Louisa Van Velsor Whitman
might have kept Walt Whitman's letter of October 13,
1863, away from Jeff since it was by no means of a sensitive or
private nature. [back]
- 4. See Thomas Jefferson
Whitman's letter to Walt Whitman from September 22,
1863. Jeff seems to be referring to the "Italian Dr" here. But on
October 30 (?), 1863, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman noted that Andrew "is doctoring
with dr Brody." Perhaps Jeff's complaints led to the change. [back]
- 5. Writing to his mother
on October 20, 1863, Walt Whitman commented: "If I
thought it would be any benefit to Andrew I should certainly leave everything
else & come back to Brooklyn." Nonetheless, despite Jeff's repeated pleas
and his assurances that Andrew would listen to Walt Whitman's advice above that
of all others, the poet refused to return home. As Edwin Haviland Miller
comments, Walt Whitman had "little excuse for delay" (Walt
Whitman: The Corespondence, [New York: New York University Press,
1961–77], 1:165, n. 90). Perhaps the poet was loathe to return to an
upsetting and hopeless situation at a time when he was "very happy [in the
hospitals]. I never was so beloved." So many men were wounded at this time that
he had "to bustle round, to keep from crying." The poet may also have been
trying to avoid further strain to his already overcharged emotions. See Correspondence, 1:164, 166). [back]