The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Susan Stafford, 3 July [1887]
Date: July 3, 1887
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03886
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.
Editorial note: The annotation, "Mrs. Susan Stafford Glendale New Jersey," is in the hand of Walt Whitman.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Ashland, Stefan Schöberlein, Kevin McMullen, and Stephanie Blalock
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Camden
Sunday forenoon July 3
Am feeling poorly to-day—the result of the long spell of hot weather—(two poor little babies have died from it in this block the last week)—I send you and George a nice little copy of "Specimen Days"1—
—Love to you all—
—If the weather changes, & I feel better I sh'd like to drive down & stay five or six hours, some day early the coming week—
Correspondent:
Susan M. Stafford was the mother of
Harry Stafford, 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. The reference is to the English edition of Specimen Days, which he sent to many friends at this time. [back]