Life & Letters

Correspondence

About this Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Lewis Wraymond, [2 October (?) 1868]

Date: October 2, 1868

Whitman Archive ID: loc.01582

Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 2:53–54. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.

Contributors to digital file: Kenneth M. Price, Elizabeth Lorang, Zachary King, and Eric Conrad





Dear Lewy,1

I will write you just a line, to let you know I have not forgotten you. I am here on leave, & shall stay nearly all this month. Duffy is here, driving on Broadway & 5th av. line. He has been up the Hudson river this summer driving hotel coach. He is the same old Duffy. I have heard that William Sydnor on 65, was laid up sick. I wish to hear about him, & whether he is well, & again at work. If you see him, tell him I have not forgot him, but send him my love, & will be back in Washington again. Tell Johnny Miller2 there is still a sprinkling of the old Broadway drivers left. Balky Bill,3 Fred Kelly, Charley McLaughlin, Tom Riley,4 Prodigal, Sandy, &c. &c. are still here. Frank McKinney5 & several other old drivers are with Adams Express. Staging is rather dull.


Notes:

1. Endorsed (by R. M. Bucke?): "Oct. 68."

Draft letter. This draft was written on the verso of Walt Whitman's October 2, 1868 letter to Henry Hurt.

Lewy Wraymond (or Raymond), also called "Pittsburgh," worked for one of the Washington railroads; see Doyle's letter to Walt Whitman on September 27, 1868[back]

2. A Washington driver. [back]

3. In writing to Walt Whitman about old New York drivers on June 21, 1874, William H. Taylor, himself a former driver or son of one, referred to "William Baun alias (Baulkey Bill)." [back]

4. Frederick Kelly, Charles McLaughlin, and Thomas Riley were listed as New York drivers. [back]

5. Francis McKinney, a driver, was cited in the New York Directory of 1869–1870. [back]


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