The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: John W. Wroth to Walt Whitman, 18 December 1889
Date: December 18, 1889
Whitman Archive ID: loc.04508
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.
Contributors to digital file: Kirby Little, Ashlyn Stewart, Breanna Himschoot, and Stephanie Blalock
 image 1 |  image 2 |
EL REFUGIO MINING CO.
DIC 18 1889
JESUS MARIA.
My dear Mr. Whitman
While knowing that you are kept too busy by your numerous friends to read many letters, I could not let the month pass by, without wishing you A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year with better health for 1890.
I sent to the City of Mexico for some feather cards1 for you but they have not arrived, but as soon as they do will send them to you as I think you would like to see them they being very curios works of art
We will have a very warm Christmas this year the weather being really too hot in the middle of the day
I will not make this letter any longer my Dear Mr Whitman, as I know y'r time is taken up with many pleasant things but I want you to know that A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year with many more years of better health for you, is the wish of
Your Affectionate loving friend
J. W. Wroth
JW Wroth2
Correspondent:
John W. ("Johnny") Wroth was
the younger son of Mrs. Caroline Wroth, who was the wife of a Philadelphia
importer, at whose residence (319 Stevens Street, Camden) Whitman took his meals
for a period of time beginning in July 1881. Johnny moved with his mother and
his brother James Henry ("Harry") Wroth to Albuquerque, New Mexico, soon after,
and Whitman kept in touch with them.
Notes:
1. Mexican feather cards were sought-after items, with tropical birds on the cards crafted from actual bird feathers. [back]
2. Wroth has written his name in the center of the page on the verso of the letter. [back]