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Harry Scovel to Walt Whitman, 22 June 1880

About This Item

  • Title: Harry Scovel to Walt Whitman, 22 June 1880
  • Date: June 22, 1880
  • Creator(s): Harry Scovel
  • Whitman Archive ID: man.00040
  • Source: Charles Sixsmith Collection at the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester. 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: Alicia Meyer Eder Jaramillo Nima Najafi Kianfar Nicole Gray Stefan Schöberlein
  • Cite this page: Scovel, Harry. "Harry Scovel to Walt Whitman, 22 June 1880." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 03 March 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: man.00040.xml (TEI)
 man_ej.00099_large.jpg Camden N.J.​ June 22d 1880. Dear Mr Whitman:

I was very much pleased with your Postal Cards because I knew you had remembered me in the midst of your travels and pleasures.

Your letter to the "Camden Daily Post" was a grand one and every body is delighted with it. Mother said it was the best letter  man_ej.00208_large.jpgshe ever read—

How I wish I was with you—I dearly love to Travel—

Camden is dull, very dull, and painfully hot—

I hear from Loui Odenheimer1—not directly, but through some of her relations, that she is no better—what a sad thing to happen  man_ej.00207_large.jpg to a Girl of her age and prospects—

The Boys around the Ferry miss you greatly—I hear them talking about you often—I know Trim Hand2 one of the Pilots—He and Hiskey3 are very fond of you—

I suppose you will be away  man_ej.00101_large.jpgfor some lenghth​ of time yet—Do write occasionally, and send some papers too, for we all like to hear from you, when you are so far away from us—All the family send love and hope for your safe return to us benefitted​ by your trip—

With love Harry Scovel  man_ej.00102_large.jpg from Harry Scovel June 26 '80  man_ej.00103_large.jpg

Notes

  • 1. Apparently, whatever Odenheimer's condition was, it was not life-threatening. Nine years later, Whitman told Horace Traubel: "The Odenheimer girls have been in: you know them? Lou Odenheimer? They brought me tiger-lilies—leopard lilies, they called them" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Friday, August 16, 1889). [back]
  • 2. Whitman's "Scenes on Ferry and River" in Specimen Days lists the day-shift of the Camden ferry as "captains Hand, Walton, and Giberson" (Floyd Stovall, ed. [New York: New York University Press, 1963], 183). [back]
  • 3. Tilghman Hiskey worked for the Camden ferries (Specimen Days, ed. Floyd Stovall [New York: New York University Press, 1963], 183). See the letters from Whitman to Hiskey of June 20 and July 27, 1880. [back]
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