The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to William D. O'Connor, 24 August [1886]
Date: August 24, [1886]
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00551
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), 4:45. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Stefan Schöberlein, Kyle Barton, Marie Ernster, Stephanie Blalock, and Paige Wilkinson
328 Mickle Street
Camden New Jersey1
Aug. 24 p m
Charles Eldridge2 was here yesterday noon—a pleasant 3 hour visit—went to Atlantic City in the 5 p m train en route for Boston—
Nothing very different with me—I get quite a good many letters from Europe (some buyers)—rec'd a German (Wisconsin) paper with a long notice of L of G. & me, to–day—Fine weather here, & I am alone.
Love to you—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
William Douglas O'Connor
(1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet
The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866.
For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes:
1. This letter is endorsed: Answ'd Dec 11/86. It is addressed: Wm D O'Connor | Life Saving Service | Washington | D C. It is postmarked: Camden | Aug | 25 | 6 AM | N.J.; Washington, Rec'd. | Aug | 25 | 2 30 PM | 1886 | 4. [back]
2. Charles W. Eldridge (1837–1903) was one half of the Boston-based abolitionist publishing firm Thayer and Eldridge, who issued the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. In December 1862, on his way to find his injured brother George in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Whitman stopped in Washington and encountered Eldridge, who had become a clerk in the office of the army paymaster, Major Lyman Hapgood. Eldridge helped Whitman gain employment in Hapgood's office. For more on Whitman's relationship with Thayer and Eldridge, see David Breckenridge Donlon, "Thayer, William Wilde (1829–1896) and Charles W. Eldridge (1837–1903)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]