The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: John M. Rogers to Walt Whitman, 24 July 1875
Date: July 24, 1875
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01874
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, "John Rogers July 24 '75," is in the hand of Walt Whitman.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman, Elizabeth Lorang, Eder Jaramillo, John Schwaninger, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Caterina Bernardini, Marie Ernster, Paige Wilkinson, Amanda J. Axley, and Stephanie Blalock
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New Britain
July 24th 1875.1
Dear Friend and Father
I received your letter2 last Eve and was glad to hear from you but I am sory to hear that you have sick so long I have been sick with the Chills & Fever I have had [wine?] to day my wife and Child3 have gone home on a visit to her house at Norwalk Conn have been gone cinse the 20th of June so I am alone I am at the same employment yet I have plenty of work but the pay is small My boy was not very well before he went away he has been better cine they have been there they are near the Salt water my wife is well [illegible] the young Lady you met with me at the Cor of Fulton and Cart Sts that is my wife. Last wensday I went to Hartford to the reunion of the Conn Vetrans and spent two days I met a good many of my old camrads we had a good time there wa asembled about Four thousands at charter Oak Park near Hartford. I have grown thin cince you last saw me I do not weigh so much in [illegible] 125 lbs I have worked very hard this sumer and I do not think it agrees so well with me heree as it does near the salt water and I shall not stay here any longer than I can help so good by for this time
I remain yours &c
John M. Rogers
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: Walt Whitman | No 431 Stevens St | Cor West | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: New Britain | Jul 24 | Conn. [back]
2. This letter has not been located. [back]
3. As yet we have no information about these people. [back]