Life & Letters

Correspondence

About this Item

Title: Walt Whitman to Abby H. Price, 3 March [1874]

Date: March 3, 1874

Whitman Archive ID: pml.00042

Source: The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, N.Y. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 2:281–282. 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, Kathryn Kruger, Zachary King, and Eric Conrad




431 Stevens st.
cor West.
Camden
N. Jersey,
March 3.1

Dear friend Abby,
(& Dear friends all)

The letter of the 28th reached me yesterday after going wrong and was truly welcome. (I suppose you rec'd my postal card2 acknowledging your previous one, briefly, & saying I should prefer the upper room.) Since then I have had another bad spell—has lasted some fifteen days—head, legs, gastric region, all bad—but am to-day feeling decidedly better. I shall quite certainly come on—cannot now [pla]n the time, but will write before—& take up my quarters a while with you, as it seems to be agreeable, & the moderate sum you mention I should pay thankfully—Though badly disabled, I am perfectly able to take care of myself, & my sister says I am no trouble—I am sure we would all get along well together—

I have just rec'd a letter from Mrs. O'Connor, from Washington, today. Her daughter, (just 16,) is not well, has had a form of measles, a second attack, quite severe, & is otherwise ailing, but I think will probably come out of it all, & grow stronger. I was glad to hear about your dear grandchildren—and about our friends Mrs. Davis3 & Mrs. Rein4—I am alone, in the house to-day, (except Eddy)—as my sister has gone out to spend the day, & my brother has gone to Easton, about his work. My brother Jeff, at St. Louis, is well—his girls are growing finely.

I am sitting here in the parlor—it is about 11½—the sun has just come out, after a cloudy half-rainy morning—is mild & warm—I go out for about an hour generally about noon, with my cane, (& accompanied by my little yellow & white dog, a most faithful affectionate companion)—frequently take a ride in the cars, or across in the boat—the men quite all know me, & are very kind.


Walt Whitman

Abby—mind the address—your last letter went wrong—had the wrong state—


Notes:

1. This letter's envelope bears the address, "Mrs. Abby H. Price | 331 East 55th street | New York City." Its postmark is indecipherable. [back]

2. This postcard is not known. [back]

3. Pauline Wright Davis (1813–1876) was a well-known abolitionist and suffragist. She was the wife of Thomas Davis (1805–1895), a manufacturer of jewelry in Providence, Rhode Island, and a Congressman from 1853 to 1855. Whitman stayed at their home in October 1868; see also Whitman's January 6, 1865 letter to William D. O'Connor. [back]

4. Whitman also mentioned Rein in his September 27, 1868 letter to the O'Connors. [back]


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