The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: Walt Whitman to Jessie Louisa Whitman, 24 December 1888
Date: December 24, 1888
Whitman Archive ID: wcu.00008
Source: Hunter Library at Western Carolina University. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Contributors to digital file: Cristin Noonan, Brandon James O'Neil, and Stephanie Blalock
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328 Mickle st—Camden1
NJ
Dec: 24 '88—
The beautiful handkerchiefs came all right—best love to you Dear J—& thanks—I am better now & sit up most of the day—had some mutton-broth, toast & an oyster for my breakfast—We are going to have fine weather for Christmas—I rec'd a letter from Miss Harbinson2 ack'g the book—My printing is all done & satisfactory—
Love to Jeff3—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Jessie Louisa Whitman
(1863–1957) was the second and youngest daughter of Whitman's brother
Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Whitman (1833–1890) and Jeff's wife Martha
Mitchell Whitman (1836–1873).
Notes:
1. This postal card is addressed: Miss Jessie Louisa Whitman | 2437 2d Carondelet Avenue | St Louis | Missouri. It is postmarked: ST. [illegible] MO. | DEC | 26 | 7AM | 1888 | R; CAMDEN, N.J. | DEC24 | 8AM | 88. There is a partial, but illegible postmark on the recto of the postal card. [back]
2. As yet we have no information about this person. [back]
3. Thomas Jefferson Whitman (1833–1890), known as "Jeff," was Walt Whitman's favorite brother. As a civil engineer, Jeff eventually became Superintendent of Water Works in St. Louis and a nationally recognized figure. For more on Jeff, see Randall Waldron, "Whitman, Thomas Jefferson (1833–1890)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]