Camden
P M June 17 1890
Dear Tom
Nothing special or new with me—I get out an hour or two in wheel chair1 most
every day—just rec'd a splendid letter & book ("Prose Poems" tree calf
bind'g2) f'm R G Ingersoll3—wonder if you w'd
care for the enclosed autograph bit? If not throw it in the waste basket—am
anchor'd here yet like a great helpless hulk—Send best love to the dear
wife & girl & boy4—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Thomas Donaldson
(1843–1898) was a lawyer from Philadelphia and a friend of Whitman. He
introduced Whitman to Bram Stoker and later accompanied Stoker when he visited
the poet; he also organized a fund-raising drive to buy Whitman a horse and
carriage. He authored a biography of Whitman titled Walt
Whitman, the Man (1896). For more information about Donaldson, see
Steven Schroeder, "Donaldson, Thomas (1843–1898)," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. Horace Traubel and Ed
Wilkins, Whitman's nurse, went to Philadelphia to purchase a wheeled chair for
the poet that would allow him to be "pull'd or push'd" outdoors. See Whitman's
letter to William Sloane Kennedy of May 8,
1889. [back]
- 2. Whitman is referring to
the book Prose-Poems and Selections from the Writings and
Sayings of Robert G. Ingersoll (New York: C. P. Farrell, 1888). See
also John Johnston and J. W. Wallace, Visits to Walt Whitman
in 1890–1891 by Two Lancashire Friends (London: George Allen
& Unwin Ltd, 1918), 39. [back]
- 3. Robert "Bob" Green Ingersoll
(1833–1899) was a Civil War veteran and an orator of the post-Civil War
era, known for his support of agnosticism. Ingersoll was a friend of Whitman,
who considered Ingersoll the greatest orator of his time. Whitman said to Horace
Traubel, "It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll, for he is
Leaves of Grass. He lives, embodies, the
individuality I preach. I see in Bob the noblest
specimen—American-flavored—pure out of the soil, spreading, giving,
demanding light" (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Wednesday, March 25, 1891). The feeling was mutual. Upon Whitman's
death in 1892, Ingersoll delivered the eulogy at the poet's funeral. The eulogy
was published to great acclaim and is considered a classic panegyric (see
Phyllis Theroux, The Book of Eulogies [New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1997], 30). [back]
- 4. Mary and Blaine Donaldson
(Thomas Donaldson's children) had given Walt Whitman a rocking chair as a
Christmas gift in 1884; see Whitman's December 15,
1884, letter to Mary and Blaine Donaldson. [back]