Walt Whitman to Peter Doyle, 5 April [1872]
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1870
Brooklyn,
Friday forenoon, April 5. 1872 Dear son,
I expect to be back in Washington next week—somewhere in the middle of the week.—I am well—Mother is pretty well—I rec'd your letter three days since—Pete, things must be going on about the same as ever—
̬As I write, it is pleasant weather, & I am going out to get the good of it—Pete take care of yourself till I see you dear boy.
Walt
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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).