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Walt Whitman to Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe, 8 July 1888

Well here I am all alive yet—but some thumps & bruises—but above board yet—& (though perhaps not certain) count to rally in fair time—It is now a month I have been confined to room & bed—hot weather &c. brain & stomach trouble—a paralytic attack over four weeks ago—Best love to you & all

Walt Whitman

Correspondent:
Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe (1864–1945) was a political activist, art historian, and critic, whom Whitman once called his "staunchest living woman friend." A scholar of Italian Renaissance art and a daughter of Robert Pearsall Smith, she would in 1885 marry B. F. C. "Frank" Costelloe. She had been in contact with many of Whitman's English friends and would travel to Britain in 1885 to visit many of them, including Anne Gilchrist shortly before her death. For more, see Christina Davey, "Costelloe, Mary Whitall Smith (1864–1945)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).


Notes

  • 1. This postal card is addressed: Mrs: Whitall Costelloe | 40 Grosvenor Road | the Embankment | London | England. This postal card is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Jul 8 | 5 PM | 88. [back]
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