Title: Walt Whitman to John S. Cunningham, 26 January 1882
Date: January 26, 1882
Whitman Archive ID: loc.05017
Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 3:265. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schoeberlein, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Eder Jaramillo, and Nicole Gray
431 Stevens Street
Camden1
Jan: 26 '82—Evn'g
Thank you, my dear friend,2 for sending Washington Star with that good-tasting little paragraph (like the bouquet of a tiny glass of rare wine at the right moment.)
Walt Whitman
1. This letter bears the address: Paymaster | John S Cunningham | USN | Office 425 Chestnut Street | Philadelphia. It is postmarked: Camden | Jan | 27(?) | 7 AM | N.J.; Philadelphia, Pa. | Jan | 27 | 8 AM | Rec'd. [back]
2. In his Commonplace Book, Whitman referred to a "card-note" to Cunningham, whose name card was mounted opposite the entries for this period (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). There is only one other reference to Cunningham in the Commonplace Book: on June 22, 1882, he was stationed at Wakefield, R.I. The article in the Washington Evening Star of January 21 quoted Wilde: "I think Mr. Whitman is in every way one of the greatest and strongest men who have ever lived." [back]