The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Ellen M. O'Connor, 1 May [1874]
Date: May 1, 1874
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00338
Source: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 2:296. 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.
May 1. 3 p.m.1
Dear Nelly,
I will write you just a line—it is still the same with me—the same strange alternations—not perhaps quite as well, of late, (the last ten or twelve days)—& yet I dont abandon my anchorage of heart & hope—dont feel to, which is a main thing with me—I have a good deal of pain, more or less steady, in my left side—in addition to the bad spells in the head—To-day has been pleasant, & I was out hobbling around from 10 to 12—probably overdid matters—as I came back sick & have been so since—(though not enough to prevent me from eating some nice stewed oysters in moderation for my dinner, a half hour since)—
So dont be needlessly apprehensive, Nelly dear—for I shall get better, & we will meet yet—
When you write tell me about my dear Mr & Mrs. Ashton—I wrote them a line off-hand, which I suppose they rec'd. Tell me all the news—tell me about Charles Eldridge—& all my other friends.
With love—
Walt
Notes:
1. This letter is endorsed, "Ans'd." Its envelope bears the address, "Mrs. E. M. O'Connor | 1015 O st. near 11th N. W. | Washington | D.C. " It is postmarked: "Camden | May | 1 | N.J." [back]