Skip to main content

Walt Whitman to Ellen M. O'Connor, 23 February [1874]

Dear Nelly,

I write mostly to send the pictures—you needn't hurry at all about returning them—not that I have any thing special to write about. It has not been well with me now for some ten days—not even as well as usual—Still I am up & around every day. I suffer much with my head, & locomotion is more clumsy & paralyzed even than usual—But my inward feeling & faith are not seriously demoralized yet. We are having it warm & bright & spring like here at present—very attractive out, but my head prevents me going out with any good enjoyment of it. My nieces are well—the one with the hair a la Chinois is California, (Jessie,) the younger—the other is Mannahatta—Jeff is still at St. Louis, full of work—both my brothers have plenty of noble, manly work, & very remunerative. I have just heard from John Burroughs—he is full of house—

Walt

Notes

  • 1. The year is established by Whitman's reference to the pictures of his nieces, pictures referenced in Whitman's February 3, 1874 letter to Ellen M. O'Connor. [back]
Back to top