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Walt Whitman to Harry Stafford, [19 April 1880]

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Harry Stafford, [19 April 1880]
  • Date: April 19, 1880
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.04016
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. . The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1964), 177. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Alicia Bones Grace Thomas Eder Jaramillo Kevin McMullen
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Harry Stafford, [19 April 1880]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 04 December 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.04016.xml (TEI)

Harry,1 I shall come down on Wednesday in the 4 p m train (as I said)—Nothing new—I am well—I had a good day yesterday (Sunday) perfect day—went over to late breakfast to the Steamer Whillden, Arch Street wharf2—every thing jolly and plentiful & sailor-like—there four hours—then in the evening to Col:​ Johnston's family3—I have got your blue flannel shirts for you—

W W

—love to your father & mother—

 loc_vm.00251.jpg  loc_vm.00252.jpg

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Harry L Stafford | (Glendale) | Kirkwood | Camden County | New Jersey. It is postmarked: Camden | Apr | 19 | N.J. [back]
  • 2. On this visit Whitman was the guest of John L. Wilson, the ship's purser. See also the letter from Whitman to Herbert Gilchrist of December 25, 1878. [back]
  • 3. The artist whom Whitman visited frequently. (See Specimen Days, ed. Floyd Stovall [New York: New York University Press, 1963], 235). Apparently the Johnstons became annoyed at something Whitman said in his (lost) letter to their son on June 9, for on June 21 Scovel informed the poet that "Johns[t]on called here Sunday with your letter to his Boy." Scovel urged Whitman to apologize to the mother and thus "stop Johns[t]on's blathering." [back]
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