The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Celia M. Burr to Walt Whitman, 7 March 1865
Date: March 7, 1865
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00849
Source: 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: Elizabeth Lorang, Vanessa Steinroetter, Eric Conrad, and Heidi Bean
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Troy
March 7th 65
Your last letter from Washington in the paper lying on my1 lap—Your book in the hands of my friend Lucy who sits there by the window reading it in the morning sunshine. She looks up suddenly and says "I think this is the soul I am waiting for, is Walt Whitman married?" I cannot answer the question, but will you?—I am not interested to know if you are married, but I would like to look in your face. How many years did you live ere you could look into the depths of all hearts. Through what experiences did you learn that lore? Remember, if ever the opportunity comes I will look in your face. It should say all that is in your book and something more. I want that something more.
Celia M. Burr
(Care of Madame Willard)
Troy N.Y.)
Notes:
1. Celia M. Burr was a poet, literary editor, and a Cincinnati correspondent to the New York Tribune in the 1850s. Already divorced, she moved to Troy, New York, to serve as secretary and companion to Emma Willard at the Women's Seminary. Almost exactly six months after mailing this letter, Burr married a third time, to William Henry Burleigh, a writer of Unitarian hymns and then harbormaster of New York. After their marriage, Burr became active in the women's suffrage movement and, after Burleigh's death in 1871, was ordained as a minister in the Unitarian church. [back]