The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Anne Gilchrist, 11 June [1877]
Date: June 11, 1877
Whitman Archive ID: upa.00174
Source: Walt Whitman Collection, 1842–1957, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 3:84. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Kevin McMullen, Alicia Bones, Anthony Dreesen, Eder Jaramillo, Nicole Gray, and Kenneth Price
at Geo: Stafford's
Kirkwood
Monday
forenoon June 111
Dearest friend
I send you a hurried line as Herbert is going up for a few days—I want to come up & be with you all awhile—I am getting much nearer to Herby, & he is already a great comfort to me—I keep well as lately, & enjoy the creek &c as much as ever—but perhaps a little variation would be acceptable & salutary to me—I shall come up soon—let us all be together awhile if agreeable, (I am not willing to have Herby absent when I am there)—
Have you been over to Camden since? I was so much obliged to you for your good letter about my sister & all, & your kind invitation to my neices which I have sent on to them. This morning is cloudy & a little chilly—Love to you, dearest friend, & to Bee & Giddy2—We will all see each other soon—
W. W.
Notes:
1. June 11 was on Monday in 1877. According to an entry dated May 15, Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist visited Walt Whitman at Kirkwood (The Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings, ed. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist [London: T.F. Unwin, 1887]). [back]
2. Anne Gilchrist's daughters, Beatrice and Grace. Walt Whitman was fond of both girls, especially of Beatrice, whom he termed "the noble one." See the letter from Walt Whitman to Harry Stafford of June 18–19, 1877. [back]