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Correspondence
Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 11 September 1865
Brooklyn, N. Y.,
Sept. 11th 1865
Dear brother Walt—
I received your letter last Friday 1 —I should have sent the bundle before but Mother told me that you said you was coming home 2 and we have been expecting to see you all the last week Mother left last Monday—we had a letter from her the next Wednesday—she arrived all right—found Han better than she expected she says 3 I have been suffering since Friday with a "run-around" on my middle finger I have been unable to do anything for the last three days—and seems to me I never suffered so much pain before in so short a time—I send the bundle this morning by Wescotts express—you must forgive me for not attending to it before—I should have done so had not Mother told me you was coming home And Walt why dont you come home we would be glad to see you and I think you would enjoy a visit home just now—come and make us a visit—George has started in his building business 4 —he is in hopes of getting a pretty large job in New York—will know to-day—Mr Lane 5 offered him a first rate berth—he thought at first he would take it but afterwards declined—perhaps he did better in going on with his venture—
Everything is going the same all rosey—we hope you will come on and see us—I am in a great hurry this morning—or would write longer
affectionately Jeff
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 September 11, 1865, 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. WW's letter of about September 8 is not extant. (Back)
2. WW took roughly "a month's furlough" in Brooklyn from early October to November 7, 1865 (Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., Walt Whitman: The Correspondence [New York: New York Univ. Press, 1961-77], Vol. I, p. 267, n. 57). (Back)
3. On September 4 LVVW travelled to Burlington, Vermont, to visit Hannah and Charles Heyde. Mother Whitman was pleased to see that Hannah was in good health and had plenty to eat, but she found it "the greatest hardship...to be pleasant" to Charles (LVVW to WW, September 11, 1865 [Trent Collection, William R. Perkins Library, Duke University]). (Back)
4. After the war George entered the speculative building business with a man named Smith. In September 1865 George hoped to construct an office building in New York City but lost the contract because, as he explained to his mother, "The architect was in favor of the new york bosses" (Jerome M. Loving, ed., Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman [Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 1975], pp. 27-28). (Back)
5. See Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 13 January 1863. (Back)
Whitman Archive ID
loc.00441