Walt Whitman to an Unidentified Correspondent [1890?]

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to an Unidentified Correspondent [1890?]
Date: [1890?]
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00612
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), 141. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Andrew David King Cristin Noonan Stephanie Blalock
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to an Unidentified Correspondent [1890?]." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 09 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: uva.00612.xml (TEI)

. . . last letter—I wrote to H1 day before yesterday—I am at my 2d annex for L of G.2 (to conclude it)—Sold two books Friday—God bless you all—

Walt Whitman

Correspondent:
As yet we have no information about this correspondent.

1. "H" may be Horace Traubel, Thomas B. Harned, or Harry Stafford, probably the last named. Although Whitman was at work on his final edition in 1890, this letter may have been sent in the following year. [back]
2. Whitman's book Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) was his last miscellany, and it included both poetry and short prose works commenting on poetry, aging, and death, among other topics. Thirty-one poems from the book were later printed as "Good-Bye my Fancy" in Leaves of Grass (1891–1892), the last edition of Leaves of Grass published before Whitman's death in March 1892. For more information see, Donald Barlow Stauffer, "'Good-Bye my Fancy' (Second Annex) (1891)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]