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Walt Whitman to Thomas Donaldson, 13 October 1885

Thank the Columbus Buggy Co., and their workmen, for the beautiful looking and practically perfect buggy furnished me. I get out in it every day—my only exercise—and I find it the easiest riding vehicle I ever sat in. Thank them for a most opportune kindness and generosity to me.

Walt Whitman.

Correspondent:
Thomas Donaldson (1843–1898) was a lawyer from Philadelphia and a friend of Whitman. He introduced Whitman to Bram Stoker and later accompanied Stoker when he visited the poet; he also organized a fund-raising drive to buy Whitman a horse and carriage. He authored a biography of Whitman titled Walt Whitman, the Man (1896). For more information about Donaldson, see Steven Schroeder, "Donaldson, Thomas (1843–1898)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).

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