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Silas Weir Mitchell to Walt Whitman, 15 December 1889

About This Item

  • Title: Silas Weir Mitchell to Walt Whitman, 15 December 1889
  • Date: December 15, 1889
  • Creator(s): Weir Mitchell | Silas Weir Mitchell
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.03249
  • 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: Kirby Little Breanna Himschoot Ian Faith Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Mitchell, Weir and Silas Weir Mitchell. "Silas Weir Mitchell to Walt Whitman, 15 December 1889." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 11 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.03249.xml (TEI)
 loc.03249.001.jpg 1524 Walnut Street Philadelphia1 My Dear good gray Poet—

Ever since I bought the first edition of Leaves of grass we have been friends through your books—I warmly thank you for this precious memorial of a man whose life work & example are better even than loc.03249.002.jpg  loc.03249.004.jpg  loc.03249.003.jpg his books

and I am gratefully yr. friend Weir Mitchell Walt. Whitman Dec 15, 1889  loc.03249.005.jpg  loc.03249.006.jpg

Correspondent:
Dr. S. (Silas) Weir Mitchell (1829–1914) was a specialist in nervous disorders as well as a poet and a novelist. On April 18, 1878, Whitman had his second interview with Dr. Mitchell, who attributed his earlier paralysis to a small rupture of a blood vessel in the brain but termed Whitman's heart "normal and healthy." Whitman also noted that "the bad spells [Mitchell] tho't recurrences by habit (? sort of automatic)" (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Mitchell was the first physician to indicate the psychosomatic nature of many of Whitman's ailments.

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman Esq | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: PHILADELPHIA | DEC16 | 7 PM | 89, CAMDEN, N.J. | DEC | 17 | 6AM | 1889 | REC'D. [back]
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