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Walt Whitman to Peter Doyle, 5 April [1872]

 loc.01734.002.jpg 1870 Dear son,

I expect to be back in Washington next week—somewhere in the middle of the week.—I am well—Mother is pretty well—I rec'd your letter three days since—Pete, things must be going on about the same as ever—

̬As I write, it is pleasant weather, & I am going out to get the good of it—Pete take care of yourself till I see you dear boy.

Walt  loc.01734.003.jpg  loc.01734.004.jpg  loc.01734.005.jpg

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).

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