Walt Whitman to Peter Doyle, 19 January [1874]
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1874
1874 or '5
431 Stevens st cor West. Camden, N. Jersey
Jan. 19. Monday noon Dear loving Son,
I rec'd your letter this forenoon. Pete I thought I would send you a little change enclosed—all I have by me to-day—(but I have plenty at my command)—It is wet & foggy to-day, and a glaze of ice everywhere—so I am compelled to remain in. I am feeling decidedly better the last 24 hours—Am surely getting through the winter very well—guess I shall come out with the frogs & lilacs in the spring—I keep a bully good heart, take it altogether—& you must too my darling boy.
Walt
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1874
Correspondent:
Peter Doyle (1843–1907) was
one of Walt Whitman's closest comrades and lovers, and their friendship spanned
nearly thirty years. The two met in 1865 when the twenty-one-year-old Doyle was
a conductor in the horsecar where the forty-five-year-old Whitman was a
passenger. Despite his status as a veteran of the Confederate Army, Doyle's
uneducated, youthful nature appealed to Whitman. Although Whitman's stroke in
1873 and subsequent move from Washington to Camden limited the time the two
could spend together, their relationship rekindled in the mid-1880s after Doyle
moved to Philadelphia and visited nearby Camden frequently. After Whitman's
death, Doyle permitted Richard Maurice Bucke to publish the letters Whitman had
sent him. For more on Doyle and his relationship with Whitman, see Martin G.
Murray, "Doyle, Peter," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia,
ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing,
1998).