Walt Whitman to Edmund Clarence Stedman, 17 June 1875

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Edmund Clarence Stedman, 17 June 1875
Date: June 17, 1875
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00369
Source: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, 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), 334. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Edmund Clarence Stedman, 17 June 1875." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 18 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: nyp.00369.xml (TEI)

431 Stevens st.
cor West.
Camden,
N. Jersey. June 17, '75 . My dear Stedman,1

I have rec'd your kind note, & am pleased that you remember me. I shall select some scrap of my MS. & send you soon. The last fortnight I have had an extra spell of debility & head distress, but feel better to-day.

Should you come to Philadelphia come over here, (by ferry from foot of Market st. Phila. , very accessible) & see me, & have a chat. I am leisurely preparing a Volume, "Two Rivulets,' (i.e. Real and Ideal) all sorts of things, prose & (my) poetry. Won't be out though for five or six months. Pleasant in some respects here, for me—but pretty lonesome.

Walt Whitman

Notes

1. Whitman met Stedman during the Civil War; see Whitman's October 20, 1863 letter to Louisa Van Velsor Whitman. On June 8, 1875, Stedman had requested "one scrap of paper, which you can spare. …I am one of those American writers who always look upon you as a noble, original, and characteristic poet" (Thomas Donaldson, Walt Whitman, the Man [London: Suckling & Galloway, 1896], 214). [back]