Life & Letters

Correspondence

About this Item

Title: Ada H. Spaulding to Walt Whitman, 28 August 1891

Date: August 28, 1891

Whitman Archive ID: loc.03949

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, "Spaulding," is in the hand of Walt Whitman.

Contributors to digital file: Andrew David King, Cristin Noonan, and Stephanie Blalock



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LAKE VIEW HOUSE
and
AUSABLE CHASM
W. H. TRACY,
PROPRIETOR.
CHAS. FURY,
MANAGER.
POST OFFICE ADDRESS,
AUSABLE CHASM, N. Y.
Aug. 28 1891

Dear Walt Whitman:

Many letters would you have had from me, if the thought of you always had written expression. Since visiting you, illness has controlled much of the time. On tomorrow evening I shall be D. V.1) in the midst of brick and stone again, in my home in Boston. In this morning's walk, to Alice Falls, I picked a few of the tiny flowers that fringe the dripping rocks. I picked them on purpose for you—and here they are—with my love and gratitude. Blessings upon you for your brave true words—

Sincerely
A.H. Spaulding


Correspondent:
Ada H. Spaulding (b. 1841), née Pearsons, was a socialite and active member of various reform movements and women's clubs. She served as the President of the Home Club of East Boston and was a member of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union. She married Ebenezer Spaulding, an Assistant Surgeon during the Civil War, and, later, a homeopathic physician and surgeon who practiced in Boston. Ada Spaulding read and admired Whitman's poetry, visited the poet, and wrote a number of letters to him in his final years. For more on Spaulding, see Sherry Ceniza, "Women's Letters to Walt Whitman: Some Corrections," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 9 (Winter 1992), 142–147.

Notes:

1. "D.V." stands for "Deus Vult" or "God Willing." [back]


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