The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Jessie Louisa Whitman, 2 January 1891
Date: January 2, 1891
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05000
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: Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Ian Faith, Alex Ashland, and Stephanie Blalock
 image 1 |  image 2 |
Camden NJ1
Jan: 2 '91
The sun is just out the first in four days—(has been very glum)—
—y'r good letter came this mn'g2 & was welcomed—Matters continue on much the same with me—
—try to while away the time reading & writing,—am preparing a 2d annex & completion to L of G.3 Am sitting here in my 2d story room same—
affectionate uncle
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Jessie Louisa Whitman
(1863–1957) was the second and youngest daughter of Whitman's brother
Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Whitman (1833–1890) and Jeff's wife Martha
Mitchell Whitman (1836–1873).
Notes:
1. This postal card is addressed: Miss Jessie Louisa Whitman | 2437 2d Carondelet Av: | Saint Louis Missouri. It is postmarked: Camden [illegible] | Jan 2 | 6 PM | 91. [back]
2. This letter may not survive. [back]
3. Thirty-one poems from Whitman's book Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) were later printed as "Good-Bye my Fancy 2d Annex" to Leaves of Grass (1891–1892), the last edition of Leaves of Grass published before Whitman's death in March 1892. For more information see Donald Barlow Stauffer, "'Good-Bye my Fancy' (Second Annex) (1891)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]