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The Walt Whitman Archive

Brooklyn Oct 15th 1863

Mother received a letter from you yesterday ¹    I got one the day before. ²   Mother did not let me see her letter ³   but Mat says that she understands that you say that you think about coming home. I hope dear Walt, that you will come and that soon  I think if you should come just now you might be able to do Andrew considerable good  He is in a very bad way and I really fear, under the present circumstances that he will not last long. Dear Walt I wish that I could do something more for Andrew, but I have to work all the time, almost day and night and another thing I think he would be guided more by your advice than any one elses  That damed infernal robber the doctor ⁴   that he has been with (Andrew has paid him $95 and been getting worse all the time) told Andrew yesterday that he must not come there again till he brought him $45 more. Only think of it. The infernal son of a bitch. I would like to hang him for a thousand years, ten times a second. I dont care anything about it for the good that I think that he could do Andrew but that he Andrew thinks that perhaps if he could pay him $45 he could do something for him. The very fact that the scoundrel wants the money in advance is enough  Dear Walt do come home if only for a short time  And unless you come quite soon you certainly will never see Andrew alive. ⁵   Will you write me at once if you can come.

Mother Mat and Sis are all suffering from bad colds, Mother particularly I think is failing rapidly. I do so wish that I could see you and have a good talk abt family affairs  I am in an awful hurry or would write more. To day I have to go through the whole line of conduit

Jeff

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About the Text

The text presented here is derived from Dennis Berthold and Kenneth Price, eds., Dear Brother Walt: The Letters of Thomas Jefferson Whitman (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1984). 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 October 15, 1863, is held in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

For more information on the letters of Thomas Jefferson Whitman, see Dennis Berthold and Kenneth Price's introduction to the print edition.

Notes

1.  See Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., Walt Whitman: The Correspondence (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1961-77), Vol. I, pp. 165-66.  (Back)

2.  WW's letter of Otober 12 is not extant.  (Back)

3.  On September 10 (?) LVVW had instructed WW to "write on a piece of paper loose from the letter if you say anything you dont want all to read" (Trent Collection, William R. Perkins Library, Duke University). It is hard to say why LVVW might have kept WW's letter of October 13 away from Jeff since it was by no means of a sensitive or private nature.  (Back)

4.  See Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 22 September 1863. Jeff seems to be referring to the "Italian Dr" here. But on October 30 (?), 1863, LVVW noted that Andrew "is doctoring with dr Brody." Perhaps Jeff's complaints led to the change.  (Back)

5.  Writing to his mother on October 20, 1863, WW commented: "If I thought it would be any benefit to Andrew I should certainly leave everything else & come back to Brooklyn" ( Corespondence , I, 166). Nonetheless, despite Jeff's repeated pleas and his assurances that Andrew would listen to WW's advice above that of all others, the poet refused to return home. As Miller comments, WW had "little excuse for delay" ( Correspondence , I, 165, n. 90). Perhaps the poet was loathe to return to an upsetting and hopeless situation at a time when he was "very happy [in the hospitals]. I never was so beloved." So many men were wounded at this time that he had "to bustle round, to keep from crying." The poet may also have been trying to avoid further strain to his already overcharged emotions. See Correspondence , I, 164, 166).  (Back)

Whitman Archive ID

loc.00426