The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Arthur Price, 25 January 1887
Date: January 25, 1887
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00555
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), 4:65. 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, Ian Faith, Kevin McMullen, and Stephanie Blalock
328 Mickle Street
Camden New Jersey1
Jan: 25 '87—noon
My dear friend Arthur
The box (Oranges) has just come, (the letter came two hours ago) & I hasten to acknowledge them, without opening the box, but I thank you heartily & know I shall enjoy the fruit. I am here not much different from usual late years, but older, more broken & paralyzed—I have a little old cottage of my own in which I live, & have a good young woman, a widow, for cook & housekeeper2—I am fearfully disabled, yet retain good spirits—have just been out for a drive—Often think of Helen (dear Helen)3 and you & all—Is this letter address'd right?—I should occasionally send H. a letter or paper, but am doubtful ab't the address—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Abby Price's son, Arthur, joined
the navy and became second assistant engineer on the steamer "Ossipee"; see Walt
Whitman's address book (The Library of Congress #109). Whitman wrote about a
visit from Arthur Price in his January 1, 1872,
letter to Louisa Van Velsor Whitman.
Notes:
1. This letter is addressed: Arthur Price | Woodside | Queens County | New Yo[rk]. It is postmarked: Camden | (?) | 25 | 6 PM | 1887 | N.J.; New York | Jan 26 | 1 AM | 87 | Transit. [back]
2. Mary Oakes Davis (1837 or 1838–1908) was Whitman's housekeeper. For more, see Carol J. Singley, "Davis, Mary Oakes (1837 or 1838–1908)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
3. Helen Price was the daughter of Abby H. Price (1814–1878) and Edmund Price. During the late 1850s and throughout the 1860s, Abby and Helen were friends with Whitman and his mother, and the Price family began to save Walt's letters. Helen's reminiscences of Whitman were included in Richard Maurice Bucke's 1883 biography of Whitman. For more on Helen Price, see Sherry Ceniza "Price, Helen E. (b. 1841)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). For more on Abby Price, see Sherry Ceniza "Price, Abby Hills (1814–1878)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]