The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Louisa Orr Whitman, 30 April 1887
Date: April 30, 1887
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05004
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 derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Ted Genoways (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2004), vol. 7, and supplemented, updated, or created by Whitman Archive staff as appropriate.
Contributors to digital file: Ryan Furlong, Stefan Schöberlein, Caterina Bernardini, and Stephanie Blalock
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Camden
Saturday Afternoon April 30 '87
Dear Lou
Mrs: Goodenough has been here & I have paid her1—enclosed is receipt—I continue ab't half and half in feeling & health
—Mrs: G. says Ed is well—I rec'd a note from my sister H2 when I was in NY at the Hotel3—all ab't as usual with her—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Louisa Orr Haslam Whitman (1842–1892), called
"Loo" or "Lou," married Walt's brother George Whitman on April 14, 1871. Their
son, Walter Orr Whitman, was born in 1875 but died the following year. A second
son was stillborn. Walt lived in Camden, New Jersey, with George and Louisa from
1873 until 1884, when George and Louisa moved to a farm outside of Camden and
Whitman decided to stay in the city. Louisa and Walt had a warm relationship
during the poet's final decades. For more, see Karen Wolfe, "Whitman, Louisa Orr Haslam (Mrs. George) (1842–1892)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. Margaret Goodenough took care of Whitman's mentally infirm youngest brother Ed, whose board cost $16 monthly, an expense which Walt Whitman shared with his brother George and his wife Lou, see Daybooks and Notebooks, ed. William White (New York: New York University Press, 1977), 2:510. [back]
2. Hannah Louisa (Whitman) Heyde (1823–1908), youngest sister of Walt Whitman, married Charles Louis Heyde (ca. 1820–1892), a Pennsylvania-born landscape painter. Charles Heyde was infamous among the Whitmans for his offensive letters and poor treatment of Hannah. Hannah and Charles Heyde lived in Burlington, Vermont. For more, see Paula K. Garrett, "Whitman (Heyde), Hannah Louisa (d. 1908)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
3. When Hannah wrote to Whitman, he was in New York to deliver his lecture entitled "The Death of Abraham Lincoln." He gave the lecture on Thursday, April 14, 1887, and there was a reception the following day at the Westminster Hotel. [back]