The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to William D. O'Connor, 8 April 1889
Date: April 8, 1889
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00673
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 The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 4:319. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Blake Bronson-Bartlett, Caterina Bernardini, Alex Ashland, and Stephanie Blalock
Camden
April 8 '891
Have been trying to while the last two or three hours with the labors, good & ill fortunes &c (well told) of antiquarian Lord Elgin2 in Greece nearly 100 years ago.—Hope this idle card will find you resting & easy—nothing new with me—
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 postal card is addressed: Wm D O'Connor | 1015 O Street N W | Washington | D C. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Apr 8 | 8 PM | 89; Washington, Rec'd. | Apr 9 | (?) AM | 89 | 7. [back]
2. Whitman is referring to Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin (1766–1841). [back]