The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Ellen M. O'Connor, [16 January 1874]
Date: January 16, 1874
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00324
Source: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Library. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 2:268. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Kenneth M. Price, Elizabeth Lorang, Kathryn Kruger, Zachary King, and Eric Conrad
431 Stevens st.
cor West.
Camden, N. Jersey,
7½ Friday evening.1
Dear Nelly,
Your letter came with the sad news of good Mr. Dille's2 death—I had seen it in the paper—I have thought much of it, through the interesting account you gave—Indeed death has been much in my quiet thoughts & musings now for many months.
Nelly, there is nothing very new to write you—I have not been so well the past week—but feel better this evening. I still have spells of great distress in the head—though they pass over—Walking no better—but general strength seems to steadily though very slowly improve—
I am writing some war memoranda in the Weekly N. Y. Graphic first number just out—ask Charley to get it for you—In my next—anent of Bull Run—I mention Mrs. Johnson3 & her sister, (though not by name)—will be out next Thursday—
Nelly, I am scratching this off at the Mercantile Library in 10th st. Philadelphia (though I date home in Camden) & will have to close to get it in the box in time for the carrier.
Love to you, dear, dear Nelly—
Walt.
Notes:
1. The envelope and the contents confirm the date. [back]
2. Whitman refers here to Israel Dille, a clerk in the Internal Revenue Bureau. [back]
3. Whitman probably refers here to Nancy M. Johnson, a widow; see Whitman's February 24, 1876 letter to Ellen O'Connor. [back]