loc.01150.002_large.jpg
loc.01150.001_large.jpg
328 Mickle Street
Camden New Jersey1
March 27
—I am getting well towards my usual (late year) state of health—have had a bad time ever since I saw you in Phila2—my own illness, confinement to the house (a chilly, stagnant lonesome three
weeks)—sudden sickness & death, (hasty consumption) of a young fellow I
was much attached to, a near neighbor, & now the flitting—I moved
yesterday (above address) & shall remain here for the present3—it is half way nearer the
ferry—write—
W W
Correspondent:
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).
Notes
- 1. This postal card is
addressed: John Burroughs | Esopus-on-Hudson | New York. It is postmarked:
Camden | Mar | 27 | 8 PM | 1884 | N.J.; P.O. | 3-28-84 | 4-1A | N.Y. [back]
- 2. Apparently Whitman saw
Burroughs shortly before he became ill on February 17. Burroughs was in
Washington when O'Connor wrote to Whitman on February
22. [back]
- 3. On March 27 Whitman wrote
in his Commonplace Book: "Am writing this in my new premises in Mickle
Street—slept here last night—the plumbers are here at work at gas
& water fixings, & the carpenter—Mr and Mrs Lay" (Charles E.
Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.). On April 3 he "paid $1750 cash for the premises
328 Mickle Street, Camden, to Rebecca Jane Hare, & took the deed, which I
left at the Register's office to be recorded" (Whitman's Commonplace Book).
Whitman had royalties from the Philadelphia editions amounting to $1250, and
he borrowed $500 from George W. Childs (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Saturday, June 9, 1888). The bill of sale, in Whitman's hand, is in
the Walt Whitman House at Camden: "Camden, March 19, 1884, Received Sixteen
dollars from Mrs: Lay, the rent in advance for house in Mickle St.—It is
understood that if Mr Whitman before the end of April buys the house, this
$16 is to be deducted from the price $1800. | R Jennie Hare." | "I agree
to sell Walt Whitman the premises 328 Mickle Street for Seventeen Hundred and
Fifty Dollars cash instead of 1800 dollars. | R Jenne Hare." Howe's Camden City Directory for 1883 listed as the occupant at 328
Mickle Street Mrs. Ellen Hare, a dressmaker and a widow. No mention of "R
Jennie" or "Rebecca Jane" appears in the directories in the 1880s. On March 23
Whitman handed his sister-in-law a "rough statement" of the sums paid to her for
board from June, 1873, to March, 1884, a period of 560 weeks, during which time
he was not in Camden for 143 weeks. The total paid was $1501—"ab't
$3.60 a week for the time boarded" (Whitman's Commonplace Book). [back]