Brooklyn, N. Y.,
Sept. 11th 1865
Dear brother Walt—
I received your letter last Friday1—I should have sent the bundle before but Mother told me that you said you was coming home2 and we have been expecting to see you all the last week Mother left last Monday—we had a letter from her the next Wednesday—she arrived all right—found Han better than she expected she says3 I have been suffering since Friday with a "run-around" on my middle finger I have been unable to do anything for the last three days—and seems to me I never suffered so much pain before in so short a time—I send the bundle this morning by Wescotts express—you must forgive me for not attending to it before—I should have done so had not Mother told me you was coming home And Walt why dont you come home we would be glad to see you and I think you would enjoy a visit home just now—come and make us a visit—George has started in his building business4—he is in hopes of getting a pretty large job in New York—will know to-day—Mr Lane5 offered him a first rate berth—he thought at first he would take it but afterwards declined—perhaps he did better in going on with his venture—
Everything is going the same all rosey—we hope you will come on and see us—I am in a great hurry this morning—or would write longer
affectionately Jeff
Notes
- 1. Whitman's letter of
about September 8, 1865, is not extant. [back]
- 2. Whitman took roughly "a
month's furlough" in Brooklyn from early October to November 7, 1865 (Edwin
Haviland Miller, ed., The Correspondence [New York: New
York University Press, 1961–77], 1:267, n. 57). [back]
- 3. On September 4, 1865,
Louisa Van Velsor Whitman travelled to Burlington, Vermont, to visit Hannah and
Charles Heyde. Mrs. Whitman was pleased to see that Hannah was in good health
and had plenty to eat, but she found it "the greatest hardship...to be pleasant"
to Charles (see Louisa Van Velsor Whitman to Walt Whitman, September 11, 1865
[Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Books, Manuscript, and
Special Collections Library]). [back]
- 4. After the war George
entered the speculative building business with a man named Smith. In September
1865 George hoped to construct an office building in New York City but lost the
contract because, as he explained to his mother, "The architect was in favor of
the new york bosses" (Jerome M. Loving, ed., Civil War Letters
of George Washington Whitman [Durham, North Carolina: Duke University
Press, 1975], 27–28). [back]
- 5. See Jeff's letter to
Walt from January 13, 1863. [back]