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Fred B. Vaughan to Walt Whitman, 2 May 1862

About This Item

  • Title: Fred B. Vaughan to Walt Whitman, 2 May 1862
  • Date: May 2, 1862
  • Creator(s): Fred B. Vaughan
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.00589
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 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.
  • Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman Elizabeth Lorang Eric Conrad Blake Bronson-Bartlett Kathryn Kruger Nick Krauter Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Vaughan, Fred B.. "Fred B. Vaughan to Walt Whitman, 2 May 1862." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 24 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.00589.xml (TEI)
 loc_vm.00798.jpg Walt,

I am to be married tomorrow, Saturday at 3 o'cl at 213 W. 43rd St.—near 8th Ave.

I shall have no show! I have invited no company.—

I want you to be there.—

Do not fail please, as I am very anxious you should come.1—

Truly yours, Fred New York May 2/62  loc_vm.00799.jpg

Correspondent:
Fred Vaughan was a young Irish stage driver with whom Whitman had an intense relationship during the late 1850's. For discussion of Vaughan's relationship with Whitman, see Jonathan Ned Katz, Love Stories: Sex between Men before Homosexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 123–132; Charley Shively, Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working-Class Camerados (San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1987), 36–50; Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price, Re-Scripting Walt Whitman: An Introduction to His Life and Work, "Chapter 4: Intimate Script and the New American Bible: "Calamus" and the Making of the 1860 Leaves of Grass."

Notes

  • 1. If Whitman attended Vaughan's wedding, there is no description of the occasion in any of the poet's surviving records. Vaughan's later letters do not mention the ceremony. [back]
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