431 Stevens Street
Camden1
Jan: 26 '82—Evn'g
Thank you, my dear friend,2 for sending Washington Star
with that good-tasting little paragraph (like the bouquet of a tiny glass of rare
wine at the right moment.)
Walt Whitman
Notes
- 1. This letter bears the
address: Paymaster | John S Cunningham | USN | Office 425 Chestnut Street |
Philadelphia. It is postmarked: Camden | Jan | 27(?) | 7 AM | N.J.;
Philadelphia, Pa. | Jan | 27 | 8 AM | Rec'd. [back]
- 2. In his Commonplace Book,
Whitman referred to a "card-note" to Cunningham, whose name card was mounted
opposite the entries for this period (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the
Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.).
There is only one other reference to Cunningham in the Commonplace Book: on June
22, 1882, he was stationed at Wakefield, R.I. The article in the Washington Evening Star of January 21 quoted Wilde: "I
think Mr. Whitman is in every way one of the greatest and strongest men who have
ever lived." [back]