I do not know if this will come too late. I hope not. I saw by one of the Daily Papers that you were sick with pneumonia & write at once after puting it off so long.
The news to tell is that a drak
blue eyed baby came from the some where to the Here
Sep 29th 1891 3 days before Mrs. G. Cleavland gave birth
to a daughter.2 The argument was which was
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the name most fited for the Baby that came to
our Humble Home. Walter Whitman or Grover Cleaveland3
The ballot was cast and it was decided in favor of Walter Whitman after Walt Whitman, America's Poet
I have had on my mind for 3 years those beautiful lines—about the "grass" The leaves of Grass that
the little child brought with full hands and asked you "what is the Grass"4—so wonderfull a question
& so wonderfull an answer that you gave I have been & still continue
to be enthralled with your
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writings & when our last Baby came it being a Boy with Dark Blue Beautiful eyes I said we must call Him
Walter Whitman Webb5 3 days after the Ex President's Wife gave Birth to a daughter now, must we change our first
decision & put a "cleave" to it, no. we love Walter Best there seemed more poetry
to that name than any others & it is & will be W. W. W.
Now I wish to ask you is "Walt," or "Walter" right.
And is there an edition published with all your poems & writings in
complete6? I must have it if there is so
that Walter Whitman Webb shall have them when he learns
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to read.
Correspondent:
Frank Webb (1864–1944)
and Ellen Pears Nind Webb (1864–1944) were born in England and emigrated
to the United States around 1885. The couple married in 1887 and settled in the
Boston area, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Their first child,
Frank Webb Jr., was born in 1890. Walter Whitman Webb, their second child,
arrived one year later but died in 1893, about one year before his brother Frank
also died. The Webbs had two daughters who reached maturity, Winona E. Marshall
(1894–1971) and Doris Hughes (1898–1974). Frank worked as a milk
dealer at the time of their marriage and was later a baker for over thirty
years. For more information, see Frank's obituary, "Frank Webb" in The Boston Globe (December 10, 1944), 36.