Camden1
Dec: 18 1889
Matters (pretty monotonous of course) are going on with me much the same as
hitherto—(of course palpably physically declining)—Rec'd a letter, (I suppose you got one too) with the
announcement of marriage between Chas: W Eldridge2 and Emily
Louisa Brown3 at San Francisco, Dec: 5—(nothing but the
printed announcement)—Also to-day a letter f'm John Burroughs4 f'm Poughkeepsie, where they are all, (wife5 boy6 & he)
wintering, housekeeping—J B not either exactly well or ill, but has met a bad
financial set-back & loss—$1000 or more—the little boy well &
growing.7
Dr Bucke8 is well
& busy—writes me every two or three days—Horace Traubel9 was here last evn'g as usual (always welcome)—he is
well—is a clerk in a bank in Phila—Am sitting at present alone in my
den—shall have a good stout currying & pummeling (massage) in a few
minutes—a dark rainy day out, with indications of fog—& what's the
news with you? & how are matters shaping? I enclose one of my late
circulars10 as it may have a wisp of interest to you. The translation of (partial) L
of G. is well rec'd in Germany.11 So Browning12 is dead & Whittier13 is 8214—
Love & God bless you
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Ellen M. "Nelly" O'Connor (1830–1913) was the
wife of William D. O'Connor (1832–1889), one of Whitman's staunchest
defenders. Before marrying William, Ellen Tarr was active in the antislavery and
women's rights movements as a contributor to the Liberator and to a women's rights newspaper Una. Whitman dined with the O'Connors frequently during his Washington
years. Though Whitman and William O'Connor would temporarily break off their
friendship in late 1872 over Reconstruction policies with regard to emancipated
African Americans, Ellen would remain friendly with Whitman. The correspondence
between Whitman and Ellen is almost as voluminous as the poet's correspondence
with William. Three years after William O'Connor's death, Ellen married the
Providence businessman Albert Calder. For more on Whitman's relationship with the O'Connors, see Dashae
E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas [1832–1889]" and Lott's "O'Connor (Calder),
Ellen ('Nelly') M. Tarr (1830–1913)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Mrs: E M O'Connor | 1015 O Street N W | Washington | D C. It is postmarked:
Camden, N J. | Dec 18 | 6 PM | 89; Washington, Rec'd. | Dec 19 | 11 AM |
89. [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]
- 3. As yet we have no information about
this person. [back]
- 4. The naturalist John Burroughs
(1837–1921) met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After
returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a decades-long
correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman.
However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged,
curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or
devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and
Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting
the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs,
see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. Ursula North Burroughs
(1836–1917) was John Burroughs's wife. Ursula and John were married on
September 12, 1857. The couple maintained a small farm overlooking the Hudson
River in West Park, Ulster County. They adopted a son, Julian, at two months of
age. It was only later revealed that John himself was the biological father of
Julian. [back]
- 6. Julian Burroughs
(1878–1954), the only son of John and Ursula Burroughs, later became a
landscape painter, writer, and photographer. [back]
- 7. See Burroughs letter to
Whitman of December 17, 1889. [back]
- 8. Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a
Canadian physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and
meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke
claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him
to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany.
Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt
Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one
of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of
Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 9. Horace L. Traubel (1858–1919)
was an American essayist, poet, and magazine publisher. He is best remembered as
the literary executor, biographer, and self-fashioned "spirit child" of Walt
Whitman. During the late 1880s and until Whitman's death in 1892, Traubel visited
the poet virtually every day and took thorough notes of their conversations,
which he later transcribed and published in three large volumes entitled With Walt Whitman in Camden (1906, 1908, & 1914).
After his death, Traubel left behind enough manuscripts for six more volumes of
the series, the final two of which were published in 1996. For more on Traubel,
see Ed Folsom, "Traubel, Horace L. [1858–1919]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 10. The circular advertised
Complete Poems & Prose ($6), Leaves of Grass ($5), and Portraits
from Life ($3). The advertisement appeared in Camden's Compliment to Walt Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1889);
a facsimile of Walt Whitman's draft of the circular appears in Horace Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, Thursday, May 30, 1889. [back]
- 11. Grashalme, the first book-length German translation of Leaves of Grass, by Karl Knortz and Thomas William Hazen
Rolleston, was issued by Swiss publisher Jakob Schabelitz in 1889. [back]
- 12. The English poet Robert Browning (1812–1889), known for his dramatic monologues, including "Porphyria's Lover" and "My
Last Duchess," was also the husband of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(1806–1861). [back]
- 13. John Greenleaf Whittier
(1807–1892) earned fame as a staunch advocate for the abolition of
slavery. As a poet, he employed traditional forms and meters, and, not
surprisingly, he was not an admirer of Whitman's unconventional prosody. For
Whitman's view of Whittier, see the poet's numerous comments throughout the nine
volumes of Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden
(various publishers: 1906–1996) and Whitman's "My Tribute to Four Poets,"
in Specimen Days (Philadelphia: Rees Welsh & Co.,
1882–'83), 180–181. [back]
- 14. Ellen O'Connor replied on
December 21, 1889: she had visited William's
grave and "plucked a few leaves [of ivy] for you." [back]