The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Ruth Stafford, [9] March [1881]
Date: March 9, 1881
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04253
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 created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schoeberlein, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Eder Jaramillo, and Nicole Gray
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Camden
Wednesday afternoon
March 81
Dear girl Ruth
Your nice letter came all right, & I was glad to hear from you, & the news around there—I put in quite a busy day yesterday—in the forenoon, 9 to 10, went to the funeral of a valued friend of mine—then had three visitors made long calls during the day—I was glad to see them all—one from Boston, I had long wanted to see—then middle of the afternoon went to the polls to vote, (election day here yesterday)—and went over to Philadelphia on a jaunt & visit from 4 to 6½—But today it is raining & blowing at a great rate, & I am staying in writing,—give my love to your father & mother—I am sorry to hear by your letter she is not very well—I hope you fly around & spare her as much as possible in the work—I shall be down Friday in the 4½ afternoon train to Kirkwood if it dont storm
Your friend
Walt Whitman
Notes:
1. This "letter-card" was sent on Wednesday, March 9 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). The visitor from Boston was George Parsons Lathrop (see the letter from Whitman to John Burroughs of March 16, 1881). [back]