The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Peter Doyle, 25 June [1875]
Date: June 25, 1875
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01629
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.
Notes for this letter were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented, updated, or created by Whitman Archive staff as appropriate.
Editorial notes: The annotations, "1873 or 4," and "75?," are in an unknown hand.
Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang, Kathryn Kruger, Zachary King, Eric Conrad, Alex Kinnaman, and Nicole Gray
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431 Stevens st.
cor West.
Camden,
N. Jersey
June 25.1
Dear boy Pete,
I have weathered it out pretty well this week—at present moment am sitting here cover'd with sweat, with nothing on but shirt & pants—to-day & yesterday the very hottest kind—I suppose you have it too.
—Pete there is nothing new in my case, & no prospect more than usual of anything sudden—but it seems pretty clear that there is no substantial recovery probable, (hardly possible,) for me—how long it will last this way it is of course impossible to tell—I take it all without growling—things are steadily growing worse with me—But I must not worry you—& may-be there is something more favorable ahead—I busy myself a little every day writing—I want to fix my books in a little better shape, this summer—partly busy with a new volume—so that they will all be comprised in Two Vols.—(not very much really new matter, but some)—
So you dont come on to Balt, now, (as I take it from your last)—Love to you, dear son.
Walt
Love to Mr. & Mrs. Nash—do you ever see Mrs. O'Connor or Eldridge?—Is Tasistro still around?
Correspondent:
Peter Doyle (1843–1907) was
one of Walt Whitman's closest comrades and lovers, and their friendship spanned
nearly thirty years. The two met in 1865 when the twenty-one-year-old Doyle was
a conductor in the horsecar where the forty-five-year-old Whitman was a
passenger. Despite his status as a veteran of the Confederate Army, Doyle's
uneducated, youthful nature appealed to Whitman. Although Whitman's stroke in
1873 and subsequent move from Washington to Camden limited the time the two
could spend together, their relationship rekindled in the mid-1880s after Doyle
moved to Philadelphia and visited nearby Camden frequently. After Whitman's
death, Doyle permitted Richard Maurice Bucke to publish the letters Whitman had
sent him. For more on Doyle and his relationship with Whitman, see Martin G.
Murray, "Doyle, Peter," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia,
ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing,
1998),
Notes:
1. The allusion to his forthcoming books establishes the year. [back]