Sept 29 – 1890—
Iu .5
Camden1
Sept: 29 1890
Dear friend,
Yr's just came telling me of y'r moving—As you don't mention my letter of ten
days since2 contain'g the little printed slips (in lieu) of preface3 I suppose it
& they have not reach'd you—so I enclose two
more—Or do they not suit? If so, let them go—I wanted to go on record
embalming (as much as I could) my tribute of dear W[illiam]'s4 memory
& past. Y'r letter to-day is the first I have heard f'm you in two months &
over5—Dr Bucke6 is well
& busy—I hear f'm him often. I continue on ab't the same—slowly
letting down peg after peg—my mind & my right arm remain'g abt the
same—I want to finish & print a 2d little annex (the last) to L. of G.
I am sitting in my room in Mickle Street in the big old ratan chair with wolf-skin
spread on back—have a little fire in stove—cool weather—bright sun
out—was taken out in wheel chair7 yesterday afternoon—What is
doing—or what has been done—abt the book of tales &c:?—John
Burroughs8 has just been to see me—He, wife & boy9
still on their Hudson river farm—
Best respects & love
Walt Whitman
later—afternoon—Yr 2d letter just rec'd & I see you have the Preface
slip—but perhaps may as well send this yet.10
Bright sunny day but cool—the grip has hold of me pretty badly—wouldn't
The
Brazen
Android
and
other
Tales11
By &c: &c:
merely be as good a title as any?
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 | 112 M Street N W | Washington | D C. It is postmarked:
Camden, N.J. | Sep 2(?) | 8 PM | 90; Washington. Recd. | Sep 30 | 6 AM |
90. [back]
- 2. Whitman may be referring to
the letter he wrote to O'Connor on September 21,
1890. [back]
- 3. At Ellen O'Connor's request,
Whitman had written a preface for W. D. O'Connor's posthumously published Three Tales (1892). [back]
- 4. 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). [back]
- 5. Ellen replied on October 5, 1890: "Thank you again for the Preface.
I am pleased with it, for I know you wrote what you felt to
write. I know that you & I feel more & more a most tender &
growing love for dear William, & all his noble and generous qualities show
out to me by contrast, all the time." [back]
- 6. 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]
- 7. Horace Traubel and Ed
Wilkins, Whitman's nurse, went to Philadelphia to purchase a wheeled chair for
the poet that would allow him to be "pull'd or push'd" outdoors. See Whitman's
letter to William Sloane Kennedy of May 8,
1889. [back]
- 8. 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]
- 9. Julian Burroughs
(1878–1954), the only son of John and Ursula Burroughs, later became a
landscape painter, writer, and photographer. [back]
- 10. The enclosed Preface
contains the following annotation: "Proof of W's Introduction to 'Three
Tales.'" [back]
- 11. Ellen O'Connor eventually
titled the book simply Three Tales (included were "The
Ghost," "The Brazen Android," and "The Carpenter"). [back]