The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Samuel G. Stanley, 27 March 1889
Date: March 27, 1889
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04328
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, "200— | A," is in an unknown hand.
Contributors to digital file: Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Alex Ashland, Ryan Furlong, and Stephanie Blalock
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328 Mickle Street
Camden New Jersey1
March 27 '89
yr's of 22d rec'd & welcomed. Am still laid up in the sick room—havn't been out in most a year. (Get along though better than you would suppose)—Come and see me if you make y'r trip—Give my love to Jo Hyer2 & any other inquiring friends. Jeff3 was here a little while ago, he is in St Louis
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Samuel Goodman Stanley
(1830–1909) was raised in Brooklyn before heading to California during the
1849 Gold Rush. Upon returning from California in the early 1850s, Stanley
established a sash and blind building company, with two branches in Brooklyn and
Washington D.C. According to Stanley's letter to Whitman of July 13, 1886, he was an old friend of the poet's
from Brooklyn. During the Civil War years, Stanley seems to have been in
Washington, and he recalled standing near Secretary Chase's residence when
Abraham Lincoln passed by.
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed: Saml G Stanley | Sash &c Manufacturer | Butler street n'r 3d avenue | Brooklyn New York. It is postmarked: Camden [illegible] | Mar 27 | 8 PM | 89. [back]
2. Stanley employed Joe Hyer, another old friend of the poet and his brother Jeff, at his company. [back]
3. Thomas Jefferson Whitman (1833–1890), known as "Jeff," was Walt Whitman's favorite brother. As a civil engineer, Jeff eventually became Superintendent of Water Works in St. Louis and a nationally recognized figure. For more on Jeff, see Randall Waldron, "Whitman, Thomas Jefferson (1833–1890)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]