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Herman Storms to Walt Whitman, 11 January 1865

About This Item

  • Title: Herman Storms to Walt Whitman, 11 January 1865
  • Date: January 11, 1865
  • Creator(s): Herman Storms
  • Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00175
  • Source: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the New York Public Library. The transcription presented here is derived from Drum Beats: Walt Whitman's Civil War Boy Lovers, ed. Charley Shively (San Francisco, California: Gay Sunshine Press, 1989), 196. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Elizabeth Lorang Vanessa Steinroetter Eric Conrad Kathryn Kruger Nick Krauter
  • Cite this page: Storms, Herman. "Herman Storms to Walt Whitman, 11 January 1865." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 25 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: nyp.00175.xml (TEI)
Dear friend Walter

it is with the greatest of pleasure that I1 sit down to write to you in answer to the letter you sent me as it is some time since I heard from you, I am happy to inform you we are all well at present and sincerely hope this will find you the same young Walt Whitman is well and hearty out of doors almost all day long rideing down Hill with his little sled he will be 7 years old if he lives till spring he is much pleased with the Card you sent him he chose the dark one it is a good one your boy is smart to learn he has never been to school as the school is about 2 miles off but he can read right smart.

my Father & Mother are smart considering their age they are still keeping House. George has been out here since last May he is stout he has done considerable work for me and we have had some nice rides going to the Political meetings last fall and we have elected our Man and I hope and pray he will with Gods help settle this trouble before long2.

Walter I am sorry to inform you that I never got the paper you sent me and I think you better come out here yourself and give us the particulars yourself we would be very happy to see you, we all send our best respects to you and all your friends.

you will see my pen and ink are both poor and myself a poor writer—so I will close by wishing you a happy New Year from your true friend

Notes

  • 1. Herman Storms, a driver, visited Whitman with other drivers in 1876. Whitman lists Storms's address as "Pascock p.o. Bergen co. N.J." in his notebook (Edward F. Grier, ed., Notes and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1961–84], 2:481). [back]
  • 2. Storms's relation to George is unclear; they were probably brothers. George Storms was a New York driver, uncle of Walt Whitman Storms, with whom Whitman corresponded in the 1870s. (See Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., The Correspondence [New York: New York University Press, 1961–77], 2:363, 364, 371, 372; 3:431, 442.) [back]
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