The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Susan Stafford to Walt Whitman, 4 April 1878
Date: April 4, 1878
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03892
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: Alicia Bones, Vince Moran, Eder Jaramillo, Nicole Gray, and Stefan Schöberlein
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April 4th 1878
[illegible] glad to hear that [illegible] thing bother & hope that you will soon be able to come down again & stay with us a week or two.1 Debbie2 wants to se you for something very particular & wishes evry day that Mr. Whitman would come down. we all want to se you so much dont wait to get well f befor you come we will take good care of you here.
George3 is buisy planting potatoes & geting ready for corn planting he is trying to get his work a long while he has such good help [illegible]
[illegible] love to [illegible]
SM Stafford
Notes:
1. 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). [back]
2. Deborah Stafford (1860–1945) was the sister of Harry Stafford. She married Joseph Browning. See Daybooks and Notebooks, ed. William White (New York: New York University Press, 1978), 1:35. [back]
3. George Stafford (1827–1892) was Harry Stafford's father. [back]