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Hattie B. Cooper to Walt Whitman, December 1891

About This Item

  • Title: Hattie B. Cooper to Walt Whitman, December 1891
  • Date: December 1891
  • Creator(s): Hattie B. Cooper
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.01218
  • 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: Lauren Claeys Amanda J. Axley Paige Wilkinson Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Cooper, Hattie B.. "Hattie B. Cooper to Walt Whitman, December 1891." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 25 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.01218.xml (TEI)
 loc.01218.001_large.jpg 833 North 10th St. Philadelphia Mr Whitman

Will you accept a "Christmas Greeting"1 from one who has the heart—but not the head—of a poet, and consequently feels a sincere admiration and reverence for those Gifted Mortals who possess both.

Yours Very Truly Hattie B. Cooper2

Correspondent:
The identity of Hattie B. Cooper is unclear. A Mrs. Cooper is mentioned in Whitman's notation on Ellen O'Connor's letter of November 10, 1863, and on November 24, 1863, O'Connor informed Whitman that their friend Charles Eldridge was going to stay at Mrs. Cooper's home in Philadelphia for several days. This is undoubtedly the Hattie B. Cooper (listed in the Directory as C. H. B. Cooper, "gentlewoman") who sent this undated "Christmas Greeting" to Whitman. The stage driver Fred Vaughan, who was close to Whitman in the late-1850s, referred to a (likely) different Mrs. Cooper on March 27, 1860; the Mrs. Cooper of Vaughan's letters was the mother of his roommate Robert "Bob" Cooper after Vaughan left Whitman's Classon Avenue apartment.

Notes

  • 1. Hattie Cooper is alluding to Whitman's poem "A Christmas Greeting," which had been published in Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) and in the final "Deathbed" edition of Leaves of Grass (1891–1892). Her allusion indicates this letter was written in December 1891. [back]
  • 2. A line has been drawn through this letter in ink. [back]
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