Isabella A. White to Walt Whitman, 6 October 1874

Correspondent:
Whitman stayed with Dr. George A. White, a chiropodist, and his wife Isabella A. White from March 1, 1871, until Whitman left Washington following his stroke in 1873. Whitman had paid $236 in rent through June 10, 1873. On November 28, 1873, Dr. White acknowledged for his wife receipt of $28 "on account . . . for rent of room etc from May 1st/73." Whitman gave up one room at the Whites' on June 10, 1873: "Kept the other at $2.50 a month" ("Payments to Dr. and Mrs. White," Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of Walt Whitman Papers, 1842–1937, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts, ed. Edward F. Grier [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 2:942). Isabella White had written, evidently early in July, about the rent due for his room; Whitman's reply is not extant. In her letter of July 29, 1874, she offered to purchase Whitman's bedstead and certain other effects. Whitman had not settled his account by the time White wrote this letter and offered him a credit of $10 for his furnishings against a balance of $38. See also Whitman's July 10, 1874, letter to Peter Doyle, in which Whitman left instructions for the delivery of his boxes from the Whites.