Camden
Oct 10, 1876.1
Dear Helen, Dear Abby, & all—2
I am still jogging along here—still just holding on—sometimes (perhaps a quarter of the time) tolerably
fair—the rest, by the skin of my teeth—but upon the whole with a spirit of cheerfulness
& content with what comes that quite surprises myself.
My new edition 2 Vols is out & bound, & pictured & autographed.
I sell a few, mostly to England3—gives me a little occupation—got your letter—write again—believe me, Helen and Abby dear,
I appreciate the letters, & most of all your persistent & faithful friendship.
Walt Whitman
Notes
- 1.
This letter's envelope bears the address, "Miss Helen Price | (or Mrs Abby
Price)| Red Bank | New Jersey." It is postmarked: "Camden | Oct | 6 |
N.J."
[back]
- 2. This is the last letter
Whitman wrote to Abby H. Price, who was dead when he wrote to Helen on April 21,
1881. Whitman, who had lived with the Prices at various times in the 1860s,
evidently did not visit them after his mother's death in 1873 until he journeyed
to his birthplace in 1881. [back]
- 3. This is one of Whitman's
characteristically misleading statements. He had exhausted the first printing of
100 to 150 copies of the 1876 edition, but he sent, as his Commonplace Book
(Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.) and his letters reveal, many copies of
the second printing to English and American admirers. [back]