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My dear Walt Whitman, The good ship 'Crystal' landed me safe at Leith a fortnight & more ago, after a

From the Castle, which overlooks the whole place, I had an inspiring vision of the past on my first afternoon

than usually unwell, but Walter Scott's people tell me that they have had better news, which relieves my

12 Well Road Jan January 29, '82 1882 My Dearest Friend: Your letter to Herby was a real talk with you

As I write this I am sitting to Herby for my portrait again—he has never satisfied himself yet: but this

that what with memory & photograph & the studies he made when with you, he will be able to put you & my

My Dearest Friend: I hope you are enjoying this splendid, sunshiny weather as much as we are—the atmosphere

experience he thinks very highly, to study in Duron's Studio in Paris for a year, that I have made up my

mind to go back, for a time at any rate, this summer; but I shall leave my furniture here, and the question

Whitman: "Because you have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually in my

My Dearest Friend: The days are slipping away so pleasantly here that weeks are gone before I know it

Never in my life have I enjoyed outdoor pleasures more—I hardly think, so much—enhanced as they are by

A long letter from my sister in England tells me Per. looks well and happy & is so proud of his little

appreciated by me—I am also very much pleased to have the photo, both to tell me how you look now and for my

Now my dear Walt I don't want to hurry you or worry you but now that you have L. & of G. and S.D. both

any less desirable—I hope S.D. will sell and that Rees Welsh & Co. will feel disposed to take hold of my

My dear friend: I have been thinking very often of you lately, and wishing that something might be done

Lovering, the Member of Congress from my district, 6 th Massachusetts, and influential member of committee

This one is devoted to some of your poems and is partly written by me, partly by my friend W. Q.

Walt you see I aint got my furlough yet.

or in a case of life and death or something of that sort, so I dont know but they will jew me out of my

down here and see a feller, and if I do go home you must come as soon as I get back,  I shall have my

15 March 1869 My dear Walt dont don't be frightened at getting this unseasonable letter there is nothing

well as usual i hope this will find you over your trouble with the distress in your head) the cause of my

while) says this building without money is a bad business i suppose walter Walter dea dear you got my

In his February 2–8, 1869 letter to Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, Walt Whitman wrote of "severe cold in my

Gais, Switzerland June 13 1875 My dear Sir I was very much delighted some weeks ago to receive a copy

Time does not diminish my reverential admiration for your work, nor do the unintelligent remarks of the

My permanent address is: Clifton Hill House Clifton, Bristol.

and other imaginary trobles troubles , or as I once heard a young Baptist deacon Say—"I won't have my

my dear friend, there is no investment that will pay like this. Do you See it?

In looking over if find I have rather neglected female young America in my Asylum remarks; Altho' she

My dear old Walt For the last 3 weeks I have been upon the point of penning you a little description

of a little town I and my sister have just taken down in Devon & Somerset.

—it was a shingly coast at low water, so I went in, in a pair of old boots to protect my feet from the

Brooklyn 27 April 1867 saturday Saturday 2 oclock o'clock my dear Walt i have just receeved received

your letter with 1 dollar in it the rain perhaps deterd deterred my getting it earlyer earlier but i

lik like a foun tain so yesterday they stopped it george was mud from head to foot) walter dea r give my

morning—have something of the kind pretty often—Still it seems certain I am improving, generally,—& that my

rec'd a letter from Chas Eldridge—& another from Walter Godey, the young man who is working for me as my

to-day—nothing particular—send the Herald Did I tell you that a doctor I have talked with here says my

the warmth of a loving heart and universal charity so beautifully expressed —that which leans towards my

ask if he got the pretty little printed articles of a Georgia Poet Fruit -Growing which I sent him in my

trouble or spells of unhappiness we are a discordant household , and will (of course) say it is not my

London Ontario Canada July 13 p m My dear friends all I am still laid up here quite sick —last week has

been about the same as the previous one with me—I am up & drest, but dont go out—the weather is in my

beautiful with hay & wheat—they are just now in the height of harvest for both, & I watch them from my

breeze—I am pretty comfortable while I sit quietly & dawdle over papers &c. as the last three hours—but my

purpose—or write— Two letters rec'd from you to day—Mrs Harned sent me a first rate broiled chicken for my

letters from friends of long ago—have just answered to an old N Y Broadway driver—also just a word to my

but laggard & a dull headache most of the time—partial bowel action this forenoon—I don't get out of my

the sash a little open'd—very moderate— Sunday noon Nov: 4 —Bright, sunny, quiet day—am feeling ab't my

for a better season, or put it aside altogether—I suppose Edward Wilkins will be here to-morrow—Mr M, my

worst of the weakness, caving-in & head inertia—but I feel it, the dose, for an hour after taking in my

both—his is one of those college pessimistic dudes Europe (& America too) sends out I am sitting here in my

I have offered & agreed to return her $5.00—one of Wm's subscriptions, thinking one of my books w d be

havn't haven't heard from you all now in a fortnight— I came on yesterday from Boston —As I told you in my

last every thing went on there satisfactory —& my treatment from Osgood has been of the best—the prospect

contains only some MSS and stuff—also there may come a roll of printed matter for me, to be put up in my

over here)—very hot indeed here the last four days, & continues still—I am standing it well—I take my

meals at Mrs Wroth's & find it a very good place—it was a good move, my going there—Mrs W is very kind—Tip

afraid something was the matter with him— I am busy five or six hours yet every day with the copy of my

I have an article A Memorandum at a Venture 5 or 6 pages signed by my name in the forthcoming June number

although hastily written & eligible to great additions, I consider a sort of rallying point or key note to my

some proof copies, & will send you two or three soon as I get them—(It is a paid for contribution, my

WITH antecedents; With my fathers and mothers, and the accumulations of past ages; With all which, had

In the name of These States, and in your and my name, the Past, And in the name of These States, and

in your and my name, the Present time.

Let me have my own way; Let others promulge the laws—I will make no account of the laws; Let others praise

I call to the world to distrust the accounts of my friends, but listen to my enemies—as I myself do;

are both very helpful to me—one comes day time, & one evening—I had a good night's sleep last night—My

mind is just as clear as ever—& has been all the time—(I have not been at all down hearted either)—(My

it—I shall be getting well soon—am on a fair way to it now— latest ½ past 4 I have just set up & had my

myself in memory of Poe, which I have obeyed; but not the slightest impulse to make a speech, which, my

Even my own objections draw me to him at last; and those very points, with his sad fate, will make him

That figure of my lurid dream might stand for Edgar Poe, his spirit, his fortunes, and his poems—themselves

"What I experience or portray shall go from my composition without a shred of my composition.

You shall stand by my side and look in the mirror with me."

"I am the teacher of Athletes; He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own, proves the width of

my own; He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher; The boy I love, the same

I was on my way to the opening meeting of the Unitarian Conference in Philadelphia.

It taught me my own definiteness of address—what my friends call my superfluity.

If my memory serves me, I went that day.

Harper's Bazaar, and W., at the name Harper's exclaimed—"That reminds me—did I tell you that I got my

As to his mail (Warren had just been to the Post Office): "This whole week my mail has been small, and

Looking back over my own time—looking into the period starting with '61—'62—I have nothing to regret,

It is a vivid touch out of life—I see it as if physical phenomena, this moment before my eyes.

I demand that my whole emotional nature be powerfully stirred.

I never saw him—but in my early years, in Brooklyn, when I loafed a good part of my spare time on the

With W. nearly an hour—though on my first coming he spoke of "the bad day" he had had, "a weary congregation

Will send you $5 the first of every month.Inclosed find $10, which please hand to Walt with my love,

I am very very busy and cannot say more tonight.Sincerely yoursJ H Johnston Will you destroy my letter

W. said, "I sent them copies of my leather-covered book: did they get them?"

That has often been on my mind."

W. said immediately after my entrance, "And what of Wallace, Horace?

But my conception is so at odds with any churchey theological ideas on the subject, I often think perhaps

W. very amusingly described his condition to Bucke, "My head easily gets in a whirl now.

Now I feel as if my brain had an envelope like the outer crust of a pudding—a dense, mucoussed cover

My deafness is directly chargeable to it."

Why do you tremble and clutch my hand so convulsively?

Aye, this is the ground, My blind eyes even as I speak behold it re-peopled from graves, The years recede

That and here my General's first battle, No women looking on nor sunshine to bask in, it did not conclude

I saw him at the river-side, Down by the ferry lit by torches, hastening the embarcation; My General

But when my General pass'd me, As he stood in his boat and look'd toward the coming sun, I saw something

Why do you tremble and clutch my hand so convulsively?

Aye, this is the ground, My blind eyes even as I speak behold it re-peopled from graves, The years recede

That and here my General's first battle, No women looking on nor sunshine to bask in, it did not conclude

I saw him at the river-side, Down by the ferry lit by torches, hastening the embarcation; My General

But when my General pass'd me, As he stood in his boat and look'd toward the coming sun, I saw something

Washington September 15 1863 Dear Mother Your letters were very acceptable—one came just as I was putting my

unionists I have met in the hospitals, wounded or sick—one young man I guess I have mentioned to you in my

must have been a giant in health, but now he is weaker, has a cough too)—Mother, can you wonder at my

mother, I have writ quite a letter—it is between 2 & 3 o'clock—I am in Major Hapgood's all alone—from my

at 4 o'clock at a Mr Boyle's —I am going—(hope we shall have something good)—dear Mother, I send you my

I think I never in my life felt so wholly blue and unhappy about any one's going away as I did and have

One reason that I have not written to you before is that I have been so unhappy I thought my letter would

Our affairs remain as they did when you left, & that is one cause of my delay.

hideous, William forbids my giving any of them away.

Walt that I hope he will come home soon, & see papa, & tell him I send my love to him & a kiss.

that Walt acted as a substitute father to his brothers and sisters, as he suggests in an early story, "My

"I nourish active rebellion," Whitman challenges (section 14); "Camerado, I give you my hand!

with him I love" (1860 Leaves), but even for Whitman, the decision to publicly "tell the secret of my

Perhaps he was thinking of Vaughan when he wrote, "This the far-off depth and height reflecting my own

that he would "confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them" ("As I Lay with My

what he had recently described in "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" as his program to "exploit [my

The dominant themes in the two annexes, "Sands and Seventy" and Good-Bye my Fancy," as well as in "Old

Speaking to Horace Traubel about their subject matter, Whitman said, "Of my personal ailments, of sickness

This questioning mood may be found in "Queries to my Seventieth Year," published about a month before

Still the lingering sparse leaves are, he says, "my soul-dearest leaves confirming all the rest, / The

I cannot tell how my ankles bend, nor whence the causes of my faintest wish, Nor the cause of the friendship

That I walk up my stoop, I pause to consider if it really be.

A morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the meta- physics metaphysics of books."

I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest music to them. Vivas to those who have failed.

In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass.

W. lying on the bed but did not stay there long after my coming. Greatly interested in the weather.

Called my attention to Lippincott's. "I want you to take it along.

Asked about Tolstoy's My Religion and My Confession: did not know but he "might read them"—at any rate

Harned—my love—my greetings of the season—enough for her, for the baby—then for all the rest?"

Horace, think of having a doctor settled down on my doorstep!

Carried on my shoulder twenty copies of November Boughs, which I put down on the sofa. "Books, eh?"

queried W., as he shook my hand. At once began to question me about the day.

"I prophesy its success," said W., "though, as you know, prophesy is not my long suit."

"Horace, I understand that—I understand:—it removes all my doubts."

Give my love to your mother.

I have lived to regret my Rossetti yes—I have not lived to regret my Emerson no.

But how much does a man succeed in setting me right, in arriving at my purpose, in getting my measure

(yes, my motive) who wants to expurgate me?

Then he exclaimed: "Horace, take my advice: never take advice!"

Take my word for it—don't take advice!" Rabelais was somehow talked about.

After a bit he rose, sat on the edge of the bed, his back my way.

Asked me, "I'll get you, if you will, Horace, to untie this handkerchief about my neck.

Then after I had re-taken my seat he called me up again. "One good turn deserves another.

Bucke's letter of 23rd answered my question: how had W. recently been writing him (in what spirit and

Give her my love—best wishes to you—wish I could spend a couple of weeks in your neighborhood.So long

And to save further signs of dissent W. objected: "No—that is not my view: I do not think that is settled

"It is my opinion that there will be a reaction: we will see"—here he paused: "It will be seen before

This is bound to come: I rest my faith in the final good sense of the nation.

Finally at my suggestion it was understood that I should take it with me in the morning.

He at once replied: "Yes: my reasons against it might be stated that way."

"My position had been simple: sitting here day after day in this litter"—looking around—"my one idea

My dear Mr.

As to Walt Whitman, I am glad that my little note pleased the good and grand old man.

I often feel that the succession of events and of work is a thing hardly in my own hands.

It has been about me now for fifty years: I am very close to it: it is one of my bibles."

Give them all my love—all my love!" And almost as J. held his hand feebly dropped into a doze.

My love to the wife, to all the children—bless 'em all—bless—bless!"

"Well then you have the substance of my changes."

In my left hand the candle. Warrie leaned over and lifted W. into a sitting posture.

Give them all my love—Annie, Tom, Herbert. O the children—the children!"

"Yes, I don't know but that now I like it better than my own: I know Bucke don't—know you don't."

quality, which comes uppermost—most forces itself upon my attention.

Remarked: "My friend Julius Chambers, I see, has gone on The World."

"there have been ten or twelve sent to me for my signature."

I looked over my shoulder at the door of the adjoining room. "Ned Wilkins!

"I had my swear out about it: I hope there was no risk run: so far I feel all the better for it—have

[This was money in my possession belonging to Walt. J. B. 1912.]What a blank there in New England!

I sent you my last report.Faithfull,W. D. O'Connor.—Emerson gone! The world grows darker.W. D.

tissue which I do not seem to get in my own established environment.'

Considerable talk followed my return to him of Bucke's letter spoken of yesterday. "Oh!"

I said my question was: Do I want to go back to it? W. approving.

My inquiry then was: "Then you don't like Brown?" "No.

"No," he said, "but I have my eye out sharply for it: it seems as if it must be there in the mix—yet

W. said: "My father had been an acceptor of Paine: Paine had been much vilified."

My dear Mr.

W. called my attention to a box on the floor.

For my name, work, appears many times.

heart to stand still at the inscription that met my eye!

My heart was strangely moved by this incident.

My best friends have been women. Put that in your pipe and smoke it."

Sir: I have the honor herewith to transmit my opinion as to the proper course to be taken in reference

Tapara, which you have brought to my notice since that opinion was prepared, does not seem to me to authorize

the matter of the Government subsidy to the Union Pacific Railroad in a few days, as I have formed my

In the meantime, the result to which I have come enables me to say that, in my opinion, the conditions