I have been going for two weeks to write special letters of thanks &c. to you & T[alcott] W[illiams]2 for your kindness & labors in my lecture—& raising in it $674 for me.3 I appreciate it all, & indeed thank you. It is the biggest stroke of pure kindness & concrete help I have ever rec'd—But all formal letters must just fizzle down to this card—whose duplicate I send to T W—
Walt WhitmanCorrespondent:
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).