Have been hoping all day I sh'd get some word & relieving word from you—but nothing—Can only write my sympathy & hope & love—& write on in the dark. Nothing new with me—Sitting here seeking to while away the hours—
Walt WhitmanCorrespondent:
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).