sent
Dec 8, '681
Dr. Thayer,
Dear Sir:2
Won't you do me the very great favor to write me a few lines regarding the condition of my sister,
Mrs. H. L. Heyde. I am sure, from what I hear, that it is mainly to your medical skill,
and your kindness as a good man, that she got through her late illness.
She seems by her letters to be left in an extremely nervous state.
Doctor, please write me as fully as you think proper. Though we have never met personally,
I have heard of you from my mother & sister. I must ask you to keep this letter,
and the whole matter, strictly confidential, & mention it to no person. My sister in a late letter,
wished me to write you & thank you for your great kindness to her.3
Notes
- 1. This draft letter is
endorsed, "sent to Dr. Thayer, | Dec 8, '68." [back]
- 2. Relations between Hannah
Heyde and her husband and between Heyde and the Whitmans remained the same. On
March 3, 1868, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman informed Walt Whitman of the receipt of
"the most awful" letter from Heyde (The Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke
University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library), and on March
6, 1868, she mentioned writing "a pressing letter to hannah urging her to come
and make us a visit" (The Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare
Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library). Nothing of course happened;
after her marriage Hannah never left her husband. On March 24, 1868, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman noted "a letter or package
from charley heyde, three sheets of foolscap paper and a fool wrote on them."
Later in the year, on November 4(?), 1868, Louisa
Van Velsor Whitman wrote that Hannah was ill. On November 13, 1868, Hannah
herself wrote to Walt Whitman about excruciating pain in her thumb: "Charlie was
very ugly. He would not get a nurse…Dr. Thayer I believe thinks all my
thumb wont get well. I feel very anxious about it. dear brother write to Dr.
Saml. B. Thayer…but dear brother of all things in [the world?] I beg you
to not let Charlie know I have wrote to you & run a great risk.…be
pleasant to Charlie while I am sick on my account" (The Trent Collection of
Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections
Library). On November 24, 1868, Hannah wrote to her mother about her illness,
somewhat more calmly than she had to her brother, perhaps because her letter was
part of Heyde's (The Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Book,
Manuscript, and Special Collections Library). According to Louisa Van Velsor
Whitman's letter of December 5(?), 1868, Heyde wrote to her about "a very stupid
letter from Walt addressed to han which he humanely concluded not to deliver to
her" (The Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Book,
Manuscript, and Special Collections Library). About December 8, 1868, Heyde
reported to Louisa Van Velsor Whitman the amputation of Hannah's thumb, refused
to "withdraw" his remarks about Walt, and explained: "I have no desire to annoy
or give you unnecessary concern.…Besides Han's illness, I was exceedingly
annoyed at the unnecessary, miserable condition of our domestic affairs" (The
Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and
Special Collections Library). [back]
- 3. After listening to Horace
Traubel read this letter in 1889, Whitman commented on Heyde: "He is a cringing,
crawling snake: uses my sister's miseries as a means by which to burrow money
out of her relations.…I think if Charlie was a plain everyday scamp I'd
not feel sore on him: but in the rôle of serpent, whelp, he excites my
active antagonism" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden [1906–1996],
3:500). [back]