The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Susan Stafford, 22 February [1881]
Date: February 22, 1881
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03904
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 derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented, updated, or created by Whitman Archive staff as appropriate.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schoeberlein, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Eder Jaramillo, and Nicole Gray
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Camden
Feb: 22 Evening1
My dear friend
I still keep around & have been over to Philadelphia this afternoon for three hours, the day has been so fine & bright, (but I am weak & half-sick yet)—over in Phila: I ride in the new Market st. coaches, the [Herdies?] (they start from the ferry door, & I buy 25 tickets for a dollar)—I was on Arch and Chestnut streets—such crowds—oceans of women, drest to kill—I like to walk along & look in the windows, every kind of article you can think of, & many you never thought of—always something new & interesting—then I have a friend cor: 7th & Chestnut, Col: Forney's office, a nice big old fashioned room—he keeps a great ratan easy chair for me, by a bay-window, & I always stop there to rest, & read the news—How are you all getting along?—We are at the beginning of another spring, & I want to come down soon—The chicken was first rate—it made me several good meals—(I expected to pay for it, & expect to yet)—the strawberries good—they tasted like Glendale—as I close it is 9 oclock & a lot of darkies are going along singing an old southern slave hymn
W W
Notes:
1. Whitman wrote to Mrs. Stafford on February 22 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Harry brought the poet a chicken and strawberries on February 15 (Whitman's Commonplace Book). [back]