Walt Whitman to William D. O'Connor, 25 June 1864

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to William D. O'Connor, 25 June 1864
Date: June 25, 1864
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00188
Source: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, New York Public Library. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 234. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang Vanessa Steinroetter Luke Hollis Alyssa Olson
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to William D. O'Connor, 25 June 1864." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 05 January 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: nyp.00188.xml (TEI)

Brooklyn June 25 18641 Dear friend

I write just a line to let you know I got home all safe—I do not feel very well yet, but expect to, or begin to, pretty soon—I send my love to you & Nelly & to Charles Eldridge2--

Walt Whitman

Notes

1. This letters is endorsed, "Answ'd." The envelope for this letter bears the address: Wm D O'Connor | Washington | D C. It is postmarked: Brooklyn N Y | Jun | 2 (?). [back]
2. Walt Whitman left Washington on June 22, 1864. On July 5, 1864, Ellen O'Connor wrote: "It will be two weeks to-morrow since you left us, and I have missed you terribly every minute of the time. I think I never in my life felt so wholly blue and unhappy about any one's going away as I did, and have since, about your going. I began to be really superstitious I felt so badly. I did not think that you were going to die, but I could not possibly overcome the feeling that our dear and pleasant circle was broken, and it seemed to me that we four [the O'Connors, Charles Eldridge, and Whitman] should not be together any more as we have been. . . . Ah! Walt, I don't believe other people need you as much as we do. I am sure they don't need you as much as I do" (Charles E. Feinberg Collection). [back]