The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Susan Stafford to Walt Whitman, 21 August 1889
Date: August 21, 1889
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03877
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, Caterina Bernardini, Ian Faith, and Stephanie Blalock
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Glendale
Aug 21st 1889
Dear old friend
I wonder how you are getting on this hot weather! I did hope that we were not going to have any very hot weather this Summer but the past two or three days have been very hot.
I have thought of you so much & wondred how you are geting on I should have written to you before this had I not heard from you through pap & Debbie.1 & Herbert2 comes down once in A while & we hear from you through him. I have been in Camden once or twice & should have called to see you but thought perhaps my coming would not be pleasant to you as we understood that you did not see only A few of your friends.
I went to Marlton to day saw Harry3 & Eva4 they are all well. Harry Looks well he asked after you said he had called once or twice at your place some time Ago but couldnot see you
I suppose you know that George Stafford5 has sold the old place at Kirkwood everything is changed there now. it's all laid out in Building lots & Avenues. & the old pond has become quite A pleasure resort. one cant go ther now with-out meeting hundreds of people
how much we should like to see you with us once again but suppose that can never be. Its A pleasure to know that you are comfortable—am glad to know that Mrs D6 & the nurse7 are kind I hope you will write to us sometime & tell us how you are geting on
with much love,
S M Stafford
Correspondent:
Susan M. Lamb Stafford
(1833–1910) was the mother of Harry Stafford (1858–1918), who, in
1876, became a close friend of Whitman while working at the printing office of
the Camden New Republic. Whitman regularly visited the
Staffords at their family farm near Kirkwood, New Jersey. Whitman enjoyed the
atmosphere and tranquility that the farm provided and would often stay for weeks
at a time (see David G. Miller, "Stafford, George and Susan M.," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings [New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998], 685).
Notes:
1. Deborah Stafford (1860–1945) was the sister of Harry Stafford, a young man whom Whitman befriended in 1876 in Camden. She married Joseph Browning (d. 1931). See Daybooks and Notebooks, ed. William White (New York: New York University Press, 1978), 1:35. Debbie and Harry's parents, George and Susan Stafford, were tenant farmers at White Horse Farm near Kirkwood, New Jersey, where Whitman visited them on several occasions. For more on Whitman and the Staffords, see David G. Miller, "Stafford, George and Susan M." Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings, ed., (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), 685. [back]
2. Herbert Gilchrist (1857–1914) was a painter and the son of Anne Gilchrist. For more on him, see Marion Walker Alcaro, "Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)". Gilchrist often visited the Staffords when in New York. [back]
3. Walt Whitman met the 18-year-old Harry Lamb Stafford (1858–1918) in 1876, beginning a relationship which was almost entirely overlooked by early Whitman scholarship, in part because Stafford's name appears nowhere in the first six volumes of Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden—though it does appear frequently in the last three volumes, which were published only in the 1990s. Whitman occasionally referred to Stafford as "My (adopted) son" (as in a December 13, 1876, letter to John H. Johnston), but the relationship between the two also had a romantic, erotic charge to it. In 1883, Harry married Eva Westcott. For further discussion of Stafford, see Arnie Kantrowitz, "Stafford, Harry L. (b.1858)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
4. Eva Westcott married Harry Stafford in 1884. [back]
5. George Stafford (1827–1892) was the father of Harry Stafford, a young man whom Whitman befriended in 1876 in Camden. Harry's parents, George and Susan Stafford, were tenant farmers at White Horse Farm near Kirkwood, New Jersey, where Whitman visited them on several occasions. For more on Whitman and the Staffords, see David G. Miller, "Stafford, George and Susan M.," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
6. Mary Oakes Davis (1837 or 1838–1908) was Whitman's housekeeper. For more, see Carol J. Singley, "Davis, Mary Oakes (1837 or 1838–1908)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
7. Edward "Ned" Wilkins (1865–1936) was one of Whitman's nurses during his Camden years; he was sent to Camden from London, Ontario, by Dr. Richard M. Bucke, and he began caring for Whitman on November 5, 1888. He stayed for a year before returning to Canada to attend the Ontario Veterinary School. Wilkins graduated on March 24, 1893, and then he returned to the United States to commence his practice in Alexandria, Indiana. For more information, see Bert A. Thompson, "Edward Wilkins: Male Nurse to Walt Whitman," Walt Whitman Review 15 (September 1969), 194–195. [back]