The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: George A. White to Walt Whitman, 28 November 1873
Date: November 28, 1873
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01985
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.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman, Elizabeth Lorang, Kevin McMullen, John Schwaninger, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Caterina Bernardini, Cristin Noonan, Marie Ernster, Amanda J. Axley, and Stephanie Blalock
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535 15th St Wash
Nov 28th1
Mr. W. Whitman,
Mrs White Today—Nov 28th 73—acknowledges the receipt of twenty five dollars on account from Mr Whitman, for rent of rooms etc from May 1st/73
G. A. White
Correspondent:
Whitman stayed with Dr. George A.
White, a chiropodist, and his wife Isabella A. White from March 1, 1871, until
the poet 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 $25 "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"Kept the other at $2.50 a month" (Notebooks and Unpublished
Prose Manuscripts, ed. Edward F. Grier [New York: New York University
Press, 1984], 2:942). According
to a letter dated July 29, 1874, Isabella White
had written, evidently early in July, about the rent due for his room; Whitman's
reply is not extant. On the 29th, White offered to purchase Whitman's
bedstead and certain other effects. Whitman had not settled his account
when White wrote again on October 6, 1874, and
offered him a credit of $10 for his furnishings against a balance of
$38. See also Walt
Whitman's July 10, 1874, letter to Peter Doyle, in
which Whitman left instructions for the delivery of his boxes from the
Whites.
Notes:
1. This postal card is addressed: Mr Walt Whitman | Camden | N.J. It is postmarked: [WASHINGTON] | NOV | 2[9] | D. C. [back]