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Walt Whitman to Anne Gilchrist, 30 October [1882]

Have been quite ill the last two weeks2—jaundice & mark'd​ bodily prostration & lassitude—But I am better, & have just been out a few steps—the doctor comes every day, (old school) & has certainly done me good. I suppose you rec'd​ "Specimen Days" I sent (two copies)—

W W

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Mrs Ann Gilchrist | Keats' Corner 12 Well Road | Hampstead | London England. It is postmarked: Camden | Oct | 30 | 5 PM | N.J.; Phila. Paid All | Oct | 30 | 1882 | Pa. [back]
  • 2. Whitman wrote on the same day in his Commonplace Book: "Am slowly getting better." On November 6 he observed: "to-day, well as usual, before sickness." The Camden Daily Post on November 1 noted the poet's "reappearance on the street," and "Walt Whitman's Illness" appeared in the Progress on November 9 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]
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