Title: Walt Whitman to Alma Calder Johnston, 24 September 1881
Date: September 24, 1881
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00439
Source: Papers of Walt Whitman (MSS 3829), Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), 3:246–247. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Kirsten Clawson, Nima Najafi Kianfar, Stefan Schöberlein, and Nicole Gray
Rand, Avery &
Co., Printers.
Boston,
Sept:
24 1881
Dear Alma
Every thing is going on & has gone on satisfactorily—My book is finished in the type setting & plate-casting, & if things turn out wrong any way I shall have only myself to blame, for I have had my own way in every thing—
Spent a few days at Concord—had the good luck to light on the most blessed time that Emerson has had of late years—the old man came to see me Saturday evening, & made a long stay—Sunday he & Mrs E gave me a dinner—every thing just as it should be, & just suited me—I think Emerson more significant & glorified in his present condition than any of his former days—
Joaquin Miller is here—I am with him every day—Longfellow has been to see me—I have met O W Holmes, Henry James Sr &c—Should like to come on to N Y abt 1st of October, & stay at your house a week or ten days—Write me & say if all right—Love to John, Ally,1 & the girls & babies, address me Hotel Waterston, 8 Bullfinch Place here—
Walt Whitman
1. Mrs. Johnston's son, Albert. [back]