I tried to intercept
you on your return
from Boston in April.
I was in N.Y. three or
four days from April 18,
but found you did not
stop. I was greatly pleased
over the success of the
Boston affair, & over
your account of it in
the Critic. I am
tex_ao.00015a_large.jpg
thinking about running
down to see you, & would
like to know if I will
find you at Camden
for the next week or two.
Ursula came home from
the Hospital early in April
in a very bad way—worse
than when she went there.
We went out to Roxbury
& stayed there 3 or 4 weeks
We are now back home
for part of the summer
at least. She is much
better now—in fact seems
better than she has done
tex_ao.00015b_large.jpg
for a year or two. Julian
is well & grows finely. It
has been my plan to have
you up here for the summer
if I could pursuade you
to come, But things do
not work right. I have
saved & partly furnished a
large room for you in
the other house, but the
woman in the other part
whom I depended on to look
after you has been sick
for two months & we begin
to fear she will not get
well. What are your
tex_ao.00016_large.jpg
plans for the summer, &
could you come if things
take a favorable turn?
I receive papers from you
frequently. I sent you a
copy of "Pepacton" which
no doubt you recd
R.H. Stoddard in the "Evening
Maid" (Myron Benton says
it is he) vents his speen
upon it—takes nearly a
column to condemn it &
all that kind of literature.
But little do I care. I have
always had my opinion of
him.
Correspondent:
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).