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Lavinia F. Whitman to Walt Whitman, 17 January [1892]

 loc_vm.01292_large.jpg Dear friend—

Just as I was deeply interested in reading "John Russell Youngs2 reminiscences of Walt Whitman" as published in last evn'gs Paper, my soul enters with the pleasing tidings that you were not "only sitting up" (in bed) but was partaking with a relish of such food as you had not till now been allowed or desired." To gain strength is what you need to combat with your disease & nourishing food may bring about this happy result.

Such we shall pray & loc_vm.01293_large.jpg hope for—I have always longed to hear you recite "Captain, Oh, My Captain,"3 & may I not yet hear it?

I would again come over to see you, but I am not myself well & you are too sick to entertain even friends.

To our Heavenly Fathers care I consign you, dear friend, trusting He will spare you to us yet a little longer.

Truly Yours Lavinia F. Whitman Phila, 2337 N. 18th  loc_vm.01294_large.jpg  loc_vm.01295_large.jpg  loc_vm.01290_large.jpg  loc_vm.01291_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Lavinia Fanning Watson Whitman (1818–1900) was the eldest daughter of John Fanning Watson—author of Annals of Philadelphia (1830) and a well known historian of Philadelphia and New York City—and his wife Phebe Barron Crowell. In 1846, Lavinia became the first woman to sponsor a United States Navy ship when she christened the sloop-of-war, the USS Germantown, in Philadelphia. She married Harrison Gray Otis Whitman, a son of Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ezekial Whitman.


Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman Esq— | Camden | N Jersey. It is postmarked: PHILADELPHIA, PA | JAN 18 | 2 AM | 92; PHILADELPHIA, PA | JAN 18 | 2 AM | 92 CAMDEN, N.J. | JAN18 | 6AM | 92 | REC'D. [back]
  • 2. John Russell Young (1840–1899) was a journalist, United States minister to China, and the seventh Librarian of Congress. In Men and Memories (New York, F. Tennyson Neely, 1901), a posthumous collection of Young's personal reminiscences, his editor and wife, May Dow Russell Young writes: "A deep and genuine affection existed between Walt Whitman and John Russell Young, the result of many years' acquaintance and profound admiration" (76). The collection includes Young's account of reading the first edition of Leaves of Grass and later meeting Whitman in Washington, D.C. (76–109). For more information, see John C. Broderick, "John Russell Young: The Internationalist as Librarian," Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 33 (April 1976), 116–149. [back]
  • 3. Whitman's poem "O Captain! My Captain!," an elegy for Abraham Lincoln, was one of Whitman's most popular, although it was atypical of his verse and style (the rhyme, meter, stanza and refrain are conventional, and the poem makes use of traditional metaphors). "O Captain! My Captain!" was first published in The New-York Saturday Press on November 4, 1865, and it was reprinted in Sequel to Drum-Taps (1865–1866). For more information on the poem, see Gregory Eiselein, "'O Captain! My Captain!' [1865]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
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