The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: John M. Rogers to Walt Whitman, 6 April 1871
Date: April 6, 1871
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01867
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.
Editorial note: The annotation, "Jack Rogers | April 6 1871 | ans. Ap. 7.," is in the hand of Walt Whitman.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman, Elizabeth Lorang, Charley Shively, Kathryn Kruger, Ashley Lawson, John Schwaninger, Caterina Bernardini, Nicole Gray, Amanda J. Axley, Cristin Noonan, Paige Wilkinson, and Stephanie Blalock
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Brooklyn April 6 18711
Dear Father & Friend
what is the mater & how do you do and how are you geting along well I hope I am well now as can be expected after geting off of a sick bed of four weeks with a fever I wrote you letter2 some time ago and have not receved no answer as yet so thought I would write again I did not know but you might be Sick
I have lost a great deal of fleash cince you last saw me I am looking quite thin now.
I am not doing any thing yet but I am gaing strength verry fast I should like very much to see you again hoping to hear from you soon
I remain your truly good
by
Address John M Rogers3
No 3 Fulton St
Brooklyn
L.I.
P.S. Write soon for I ancious to hear from you I remain your Affecinate Son
John
Correspondent:
John (Jack) M. Rogers was a
Brooklyn driver with whom Whitman had a loving relationship. Whitman
first met him in Brooklyn on September 21, 1870. For more on Rogers and his
relationship with the poet, see Charley Shively, ed., Calamus
Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working-Class Camerados (San Francisco: Gay
Sunshine Press, 1987), 122–135.
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed in Whitman's hand: Walt Whitman | Attorney General's Office | Washington | D.C. It is postmarked: NEW YORK | APR | 6 | 10 PM; [illegible]ER | [AP]R | 7 [illegible]. [back]
2. Rogers may be referring to his letter to Whitman of February 27, 1871. [back]
3. Whitman often enclosed a self-addressed envelope in his outgoing letters to friends. The envelope in which Rogers mailed this letter appears to be one such envelope pre-addressed by Whitman. [back]