I am still here, & still very much the same as when I last wrote you—have not retrograded any, nor had any more of the very bad spells like those in the early part of October—bodily strength is certainly better—dont so easily tire, & give out—locomotion still very bad—& head not out of the woods yet—but spirits & feelings pretty good—I have sent you the Graphic, with piece by me, about the Capitol, which I suppose you rec'd—also same paper with my portrait & criticism by "Matador"1—I have rec'd a letter lately from Eldridge—nothing new at Washington, in my affairs—Mrs. O'Connor was to return last Tuesday—I have written a couple of new poems, which I have sold to a magazine & got the money for—I think one will appear in January number—I will leave you to guess the magazine—How are you getting along? How is 'Sula?—Love to both of you—I am writing this up in my room—it is growing dark—I am going out to tea, to an acquaintance here—
WaltCorrespondent:
The naturalist John Burroughs
(1837–1921) met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After
returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a decades-long
correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman.
However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged,
curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or
devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and
Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting
the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs,
see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).