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Walt,

I am to be marri'd tomorrow, Saturday at 3 o'cl at 213 W. 43rd St.—near 8th Ave.

I shall have no show! I have invited no company.—

I want you to be there.—

Do not fail please, as I am very axious you should come.—

Truly yours,

Fred

The text presented here is derived from Charley Shively, ed., Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working-Class Camerados (San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1987). For a detailed description of discrepancies between this electronic edition and the print source, see our statement of editorial policy.

The manuscript of this letter, dated May 2, 1862, is held in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

1.  Fred Vaughan was a young Irish stage driver with whom Whitman had an intense relationship during the late 1850's. For discussion of Vaughan's relationship with Whitman, see Jonathan Ned Katz, Love Stories: Sex between Men before Homosexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 123–132; Charley Shively, Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working-Class Camerados (San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1987), 36–50; Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price, Re-Scripting Walt Whitman: An Introduction to His Life and Work, "Chapter 4: Intimate Script and the New American Bible: "Calamus" and the Making of the 1860 Leaves of Grass."  (Back)

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