The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Herbert Gilchrist, 15 December [1879]
Date: December 15, 1879
Whitman Archive ID: loc.02170
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 derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented, updated, or created by Whitman Archive staff as appropriate.
Contributors to digital file: Alicia Bones, Grace Thomas, Eder Jaramillo, Kevin McMullen, and Nicole Gray
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St Louis Missouri U S A1
Dec 15—
Yours of 1st inst: rec'd forwarded from Camden here—Have been & am quite ill here, getting better, & then bad relapses2—yesterday & to-day decidedly improving—Soon after you receive this shall probably be back in Camden—Will try to send you a photo: such as you desire—I hear from John Burroughs—he is well—Arthur Peterson has gone to the Pacific, bound round the world, 3 years trip—Merry Christmas to you & all—
Walt Whitman
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed: Herbert Gilchrist | 1 Elm Villas Elm Row | Heath Street Hampstead | London | England. It is postmarked: Saint Louis | Dec | 15 | 6 PM | Mo; London N.W. | C7 | Paid | (?) 79. [back]
2. According to his diary, Whitman had "very bad spells" from December 7 to 10, "(sometimes tho't it all nearing the end)" (Walt Whitman Review, 7 [1961], 12). [back]