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 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: 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
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]