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Walt Whitman to Horace Howard Furness, 26 January 1881

About This Item

  • Title: Walt Whitman to Horace Howard Furness, 26 January 1881
  • Date: January 26, 1881
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.02114
  • 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 Eder Jaramillo John Schwaninger Caterina Bernardini Amanda J. Axley Marie Ernster Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to Horace Howard Furness, 26 January 1881." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 03 May 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.02114.xml (TEI)
 loc.02114.001_large.jpg 431 Stevens Street Camden Jan: 26 '81 My dear friend

I am sorry to have to send you word that I am not feeling in good trim at all to-day, & shall be unable to meet you & the other friends at dinner—I send you herewith a couple of pictures (I call it my Quaker picture)1—one is for your father2—also the books herewith—also my love to you—

Walt Whitman  loc.02114.002_large.jpg Walt Whitman 26 Jany 1881

Correspondent:
Horace Furness (1833–1912) was the distinguished editor of the Variorum Shakespeare. Furness met Whitman in 1879, and Furness was one of the honorary pallbearers at Whitman's funeral. In "Personal Recollections of Walt Whitman," William R. Thayer, in discussing Whitman's slyness in money matters, stated that for the last six or eight years of the poet's life George W. Childs and Furness subscribed "an annual sum," and paid a young man to act as his driver and valet (Scribner's Magazine 65 [1919], 685).

Notes

  • 1. Whitman is likely referring to this photo taken by William Kurtz. [back]
  • 2. Reverend Doctor William Henry Furness (1802–1896) was a close friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Unitarian minister at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, and a prominent and committed abolitionist. [back]
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