The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Herbert Gilchrist, [1877]
Date: early 1877
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02164
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.
Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
Contributors to digital file: Kirsten Clawson, Eder Jaramillo, Stefan Schöberlein, and Nicole Gray
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431 Stevens Street Camden
Sunday afternoon1
My Dear Herbert
Though I am pretty well physically it is very lonesome & dreary to me here, & I have been thinking all day how much I would like to come over & see you all & stay awhile with you. Herbert see about the store & have put up soon as convenient,—& have some dry oak wood saved the right length, split & carried up there, & piled in the room. Send me word before the end of the week. I wish much to come—
Love to all—
Walt Whitman
(rec'd yesterday a letter from Wm Rossetti, which I will just enclose—& take again when I come over)2
Notes:
1. The text does not aid dating. However, the letter was written during the winter months, and it seems reasonable to assume that it was sent shortly after the arrival of the Gilchrists in Philadelphia. Note also the similarities to the letter from Whitman to Anne Gilchrist of December 12, 1876 and the letter from Whitman to John Burroughs of January 16, 1877. According to his Commonplace Book, Whitman stayed with the Gilchrists from January 10 to 16 and from January 25 to February 2 (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
2. Probably a fragment of this letter is in the Feinberg Collection (December 15?, 1876). [back]