The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Elizabeth & Isabella Ford and Edward R. Pease, 28 May [1884]
Date: May 28, 1884
Whitman Archive ID: bol.00001
Source: Walt Whitman Collection, Bolton Central Library, Bolton, England. 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 derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented, updated, or created by Whitman Archive staff as appropriate.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schöberlein, Kyle Barton, Nicole Gray, and Kevin McMullen
 image 1 |  image 2 |
Camden New Jersey U S America
328 Mickle Street
May 28, 18841
—Your kind message received. I am as usual & in good heart.2
Walt Whitman
Correspondents:
Isabella Ford
(1855–1924) was an English feminist, socialist, and writer. Elizabeth
(Bessie) Ford was her sister. Both were introduced to Whitman's writings by
Edward Carpenter and they quickly became admirers of the aged poet.
Edward Reynolds Pease
(1857–1955) was an English writer and a founding member of the Fabian
Society.
Notes:
1. This postcard is addressed: Bessie Ford, Isabella Ford and Edward R Pease | 5 Hyde Park Mansions | London nw England. It is postmarked: CAMDEN | MAY 28 | 4PM | 1884 | N.J. ; LONDON S.W. | JU 9 | 84. [back]
2. Elizabeth Ford wrote to Whitman on February 16, 1875: "Your words that you have written are such a strength, it is so wonderful to find said, things that hover in one. I mean, to read things that one's heart cries out in answer to. This is what makes me so that I cannot help writing to you." Her picture, inscribed June 20, 1877, is in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. Whitman sent Leaves of Grass and Specimen Days to Isabella on October 11, 1882, and to Elizabeth on June 27, 1883 (Whitman's Commonplace Book). For Pease, see the letter from Whitman to Edward R. Pease of August 21, 1883. [back]