The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Mary A. Fisher to Walt Whitman, 1 May 1890
Date: May 1, 1890
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02078
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: Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Ian Faith, and Stephanie Blalock
 image 1 |  image 2 |  image 3 |  image 4 |
71 Java St.
Brooklyn E.D.
N.Y.
Mr Walt Whitman
Dear Sir
Would you be willing to accept of a dollar or two to furnish some little luxury which you would not otherwise obtain?
It would come occasionally from a few ladies who appreciate your genius, & intend making it their life object to aid & encourage literary talent so far as their limited means will furnish.
Very respectfully
M.A. Fisher.
May 1st 1890.
Mr Whitman
Correspondent:
Mary A. Fisher
(1839–1920) was the founder of the Home-Hotel Association, incorporated in
1888 with the mission of providing aid to arists, writers, and other
professional people in need. Fisher had previously written to Whitman on
September 21, 1889, sending him their Annual Report and requesting him to read
at a benefit for the Association. The address of 71 Java Street was the
Association's temporary address until the Home-Hotel 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, where Fisher wrote her book The Story of the Mary Fisher Home (1915).