The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Susan Stafford, 30 January [1881]
Date: January 30, 1881
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04045
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: Alicia Bones, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Stefan Schoeberlein, and Nicole Gray
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Camden
Sunday afternoon Jan: 30—1
My dear friend,
I rec'd your good letter some days since, & would like indeed to be down with you & George & all—but the bitter cold continues so I think I'd better stay close here for the present—but it won't be long before I shall be with you all—I suppose you & the rest are reading Herbert's books from time to time—though they are very queer in the story of Blake's life and works, there is a deal that is interesting & good to chew on—then they are such beautiful specimens of paper & printing, it is a pleasure to read them2
I had a nice visit from Harry and Mont—there is nothing new or interesting to write you—it is now ½ past 2, after dinner, & I have been writing & fixing up a composition alone in my room, since breakfast—it is a cloudy, cold raw day here, rather lonesome, but still I make out—(but I could make out better if I have the rest of the day on a visit to Glendale, & a good strong cup of tea with you & Ruth, to cheer me up)—I am still feeling pretty well so far this winter, bless the Lord—I send Debbie a book "the Old Curiosity Shop"—love to her and Joe—have you had any more hog-killings—which is the most fun? them or the Glendale church?
W W
Notes:
1. On January 30 Whitman sent this letter to Susan Stafford as well as a "'wrestling' slip to Harry" and Old Curiosity Shop to Deborah Browning (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
2. Presumably the new and enlarged two-volume edition, Life of William Blake, with Selections (1880), containing the memoir of Herbert's father, Alexander Gilchrist. [back]