Walt Whitman to William Ingram, 8 September 1885

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to William Ingram, 8 September 1885
Date: September 8, 1885
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: loc.06098
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), 319. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Alex Kinnaman Stefan Schöberlein Kyle Barton
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to William Ingram, 8 September 1885." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 09 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.06098.xml (TEI)

Camden New Jersey1 Sept. 8 noon2

Thanks, my friend, for your kind invitation—but am not able to accept at present—Will call soon at the store—

Walt Whitman

Correspondent:
William Ingram, a Quaker, kept a tea store—William Ingram and Son Tea Dealers—in Philadelphia. Of Ingram, Whitman observed to Horace Traubel: "He is a man of the Thomas Paine stripe—full of benevolent impulses, of radicalism, of the desire to alleviate the sufferings of the world—especially the sufferings of prisoners in jails, who are his protégés" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, May 20, 1888). Ingram and his wife visited the physician Richard Maurice Bucke and his family in Canada in 1890.

Notes

1. This letter is addressed: Wm Ingram | 31 North Second Street | Philadelphia. It is postmarked: Philadelphia | Pa | Sep 8 85 | 1 PM. [back]
2. The postmark establishes the date. Whitman was "unwell" from July 20 to September 3, 1885 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]