Mary A. Fisher to Walt Whitman, 21 September 1889

About This Item

Title: Mary A. Fisher to Walt Whitman, 21 September 1889
Date: September 21, 1889
Creator(s): Mary A. Fisher
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02077
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: Cristin Noonan Brandon James O'Neil Andrew David King Stephanie Blalock
Cite this page: Fisher, Mary A.. "Mary A. Fisher to Walt Whitman, 21 September 1889." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 09 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.02077.xml (TEI)

loc.02077.001_large.jpg Walt Whitman Esq Dear Sir

Allow me to ask, could we secure your sevices to give a Reading part of an evening at Chickering Hall for the benefit of our Society & what would be the remunerative required? loc.02077.002_large.jpg If you have any preferences as to Month, please state it.1

Respectfully yours Mary A. Fisher 71 Java St. Brooklyn E.D. Sept. 21—89.

(at Chickering Hall)

loc.02077.003_large.jpg

loc.02077.004_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Mary A. Fisher (1839–1920) was the founder of the Home-Hotel Association, which was incorporated in 1888. The Association's aim was to assist needy authors, artists, professionals and other "brain-workers." Fisher is requesting Whitman to read at a benefit for this Association. The address of 71 Java Street was the Association's temporary address until the group moved to permanent rooms on St. Ann's Avenue in the Bronx. The Association quickly outgrew those rooms and relocated to Tenafly, New Jersey, in 1899. For more on Fisher and the Home-Hotel Association, see Fisher's book, The Story of the Mary A Fisher Home (New York: The Shakespeare Press, 1915).

Notes

1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman Esq. | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: [illegible]OKLYN, N. Y. | SEP 23 | [illegible]AM | G; 11; CAMDEN, N.J. | SEP | 24 | 6PM | 1889 | REC'D. [back]