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Walt Whitman to Edward Cattell, 24 January 1877

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Edward Cattell, 24 January 1877
  • Date: January 24, 1877
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.01251
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.

    Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
  • Contributors to digital file: Grace Thomas Alicia Bones Anthony Dreesen Kevin McMullen Nicole Gray Kenneth Price Elizabeth Lorang Amanda J. Axley Marie Ernster
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Edward Cattell, 24 January 1877." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 04 December 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.01251.xml (TEI)
 loc.01251.001_large.jpg letter to Ed Cattell Jan 24 '77  loc.01251.002_large.jpg  loc.01251.003_large.jpg letter sent to Ed Cattell—Jan 24th '77 Jan​ 24th '771 Dear Ed

I want to write you a few lines particular. Do not call to see me any more at the Stafford family,2 & do not call there at all any more. Dont ask me why—I will explain to you when we meet.3 When you meet any of the family I wish you to use them just the  loc.01251.004_large.jpg  loc.01251.005_large.jpg same as ever, but do not go over there at all. I want you to keep this to yourself, & not mention it nor this letter to any one & you must not speak about it at all to any one.

There is nothing in it that I think I do wrong, nor am ashamed of, but I wish it kept entirely between you and me—& I shall feel very much hurt & displeased if you don't keep the whole thing & the present letter entirely to yourself. Mr and Mrs Stafford are very near & kind to me, & have been & are like brother & sister to me—& as to Harry4 you know how I love him. Ed you too have my unalterable love, & always shall have. I want you to come up here & see me.5 when will you come. write

 loc.01251.006_large.jpg

Correspondent:
In May 1876, Whitman met Edward Cattell, a young farm hand and a friend of the Staffords. The poet took an interest in the Cattell family: "about 25 or 6—folks mother, father &c. live at Gloucester—his grand, or great grandfather, Jonas Cattell, a great runner, & Revolutionary soldier, spy." Whitman referred to Jonas in the Philadelphia Times on January 26, 1879. Whitman took special interest, however, in Edward, as charged entries from one of his diaries make clear: "the hour (night, June 19, '76, Ed & I.) at the front gate by the road." Two days later he noted "the swim of the boys, Ed. [Stafford?], Ed. C. & Harry" (Diary Notes in Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). In 1877 Whitman cited "Sept meetings Ed C by the pond at Kirkwood moonlight nights" (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.), and in Diary Notes on October 29, "Ed. Cattell with me."

Notes

  • 1. This is a draft letter. The final version has not been located. [back]
  • 2. "The Staffords" refers to the family of Harry Lamb Stafford (1858–1918), a young man who Whitman befriended in 1876 in Camden. Harry's parents, George (1827–1892) and Susan Stafford (1833–1910), were tenant farmers at White Horse Farm near Kirkwood, New Jersey, where Whitman visited them on several occasions. In the 1880s, the Staffords sold the farm and moved to nearby Glendale. For more on Whitman and the Staffords, see David G. Miller, "Stafford, George and Susan M.," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 3. Whitman deleted the following: "Mr and Mrs Stafford are very near & dear to me, & as to Harry, you know how I love him." [back]
  • 4. Walt Whitman met the 18-year-old Harry Lamb Stafford (1858–1918) in 1876, beginning a relationship which was almost entirely overlooked by early Whitman scholarship, in part because Stafford's name appears nowhere in the first six volumes of Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden—though it does appear frequently in the last three volumes, which were published only in the 1990s. Whitman occasionally referred to Stafford as "My (adopted) son" (as in a December 13, 1876, letter to John H. Johnston), but the relationship between the two also had a romantic, erotic charge to it. In 1883, Harry married Eva Westcott. For further discussion of Stafford, see Arnie Kantrowitz, "Stafford, Harry L. (b.1858)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 5. Whitman deleted the following: "Or come over to 1929 north 22d street Philadelphia [Mrs. Gilchrist's house] & see me." [back]
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