Life & Letters

Correspondence

About this Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Abby H. Price, 16 July 1869

Date: July 16, 1869

Whitman Archive ID: pml.00029

Source: The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 2:83. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.

Contributors to digital file: Kenneth M. Price, Elizabeth Lorang, Zachary King, and Eric Conrad




Attorney General's Office,
Washington.
July 16, 1869

Dear Abby,

Every thing here goes on pretty much the same with me. My health has been good since I last saw you. It is very monotonous here, & I sometimes feel like pulling up stakes in desperation—Abby, I have little to write about, only I wanted to write you something—I hear from you occasionally by mother's letters—What a good girl Helen is, to go and make those nice calls on mother1—I am grateful to her for so doing, & hope she will continue always—the same good affectionate Helen—& indeed I am sure she always will be—

It is very hot weather here—to-day it is 96 or '7—I am sitting here at my desk in the office—there is quite a breeze pouring in the window, but it is a warm wind—half our clerks are away on vacation. I shall leave Washington soon after the middle of August—then I will see you all, & we will have some good talks.

Good bye, dear Abby—I send my love to Emily,2 & all—The O'Connors are well—Jenny3 grows like every thing.

Affectionately
Walt.


Notes:

1. According to Louisa Van Velsor Whitman's letter of July 14, 1869, Helen Price had visited her on the preceding day. Probably Walt Whitman wrote because Helen was "wondering all the time why you dont write to her" (The Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library). [back]

2. Walt Whitman did not refer to his mother's report that " emmily will be married this fall" (The Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library). [back]

3. The daughter of William D. and Ellen M. O'Connor. [back]


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