The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to John Burroughs, 17 May 1889
Date: May 17, 1889
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01168
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.
Editorial note: The annotation, "6 | 5/17/89," is in an unknown hand.
Contributors to digital file: Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Alex Ashland, Breanna Himschoot, and Stephanie Blalock
 image 1 |  image 2 |
Camden
May 17 '891
As I write (noon) I have not heard a word since from Wash'n but of course our dear friend2 is buried3 & all has gone like tracks on the shore by sea waves washed away passing—
—Much the same with me (gradually yielding)—One betterment—I get out in a wheel'd chair,4 often twice a day—am sitting here by the open window—perfect weather—
best love—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
The naturalist John Burroughs
(1837–1921) met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After
returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a lifelong
correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman.
However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged,
curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or
devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and
Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting
the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs,
see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. This postal card is addressed: John Burroughs | West Park | Ulster Co: New York. It is postmarked: West Park | May | 18 | 1889 | NY; Camden, N.J. | May 17 | 8 PM | 89. [back]
2. William Douglas O'Connor (1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet "The Good Gray Poet," published in 1866 (a digital version of the pamphlet is available at "The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication"). For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
3. Ellen O'Connor informed Whitman of the death of her husband and Whitman's longtime friend and defender, William Douglas O'Connor, in her letter of May 9, 1889. The poet informed Burroughs in his postal card of May 10, 1889; Burroughs responded the next day in his letter of May 11, 1889. [back]
4. Horace Traubel and Ed Wilkins, Whitman's nurse, went to Philadelphia to purchase a wheeled chair for the poet that would allow him to be "pull'd or push'd" outdoors. See Whitman's letter to William Sloane Kennedy of May 8, 1889. [back]