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The Walt Whitman Archive

Brooklyn, N. Y., Sept. 29th 1865

We hav'nt heard from you for some time ¹   —you say the bundle was not the right one—I read the label and thought it read the same as you described in your letter—would you like me to send the other or right one if I can find it—Mother told me she knew the one you meant and that she would put it on the table for me ²   —that is the one I sent

We had a letter from Mother to-day—she seems pretty well—talks a little of coming home but does not say when—I have just written her this eve—We are all as well as usual—the baby has a bad boil on its forehead but I suppose it will get well in a day or two and then she will be all right again—it looks just now though about as bad as anything of the kind I ever saw  by-the-way it was me that had the "run around" on the finger ³   —and I have just got well of it—and a cussed bad time I had of it too—it accounts for my not writing you before—

George is getting along first rate I guess—He dont say any more about getting a position in the Custom House—I hope he wont try but I am quite sure that if he can keep devoted to his present undertaking he will make a handsome fortune in 8 or ten years ⁴   —he certainly has the prospect of it—there is an immense amount of building in the city this season—though material is wonderful high—brick $12 per thousand—should be abt 5 or 6—I have given up all thought of building this fall—at one time I thought I would sure  perhaps next spring will be better

Matters about Brooklyn are much the same—with me just the same—Mr Kirkwood ⁵   has been on a visit to Brooklyn and just gone back to St. Louis—I think it more than likely that he will build the water works of that city—if so it will be as large a job as the Brooklyn works

The Doctor ⁶   returned from the country last week—he looks first rate—says he had a wonderfully good time—he was spending the summer up in Vermont near Burlington—speaks of it as being a splendid place to live—

In her letter to-day Mother says she wants either you or George to come on and come home with her ⁷   —so I suppose she begins to think of coming home

Mattie and the children desire to send their love to you—the child[ren] are growing first rate—

I wish you would write me  I want to know how things are going with you

affectionately 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 September 29, 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 most recent letter to the family had been written on about September 20 (Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., Walt Whitman: The Correspondence [New York: New York Univ. Press, 1961-77], Vol. I, p. 369).  (Back)

2.  In her letter to WW of September 5 LVVW seemed confident that she knew which bundle the poet wanted: "if you want Jeff to send that package of papers you must write to him" (Trent Collection, William R. Perkins Library, Duke University). It is not clear what material WW was seeking.  (Back)

3.  Jeff's failure to include a period after "says" in Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 11 September 1865 created ambiguity. The poet must have understood Jeff's letter to mean that LVVW had the "run around" on her finger.  (Back)

4.  Jeff was right in thinking that George would eventually prosper. At his death in 1901 George left an estate valued at $59,348.14. No one has discovered how he accumulated so much money (Jerome M. Loving, ed., Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman [Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 1975], p. 33).  (Back)

5.  See Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 16 April 1860. Kirkwood had been appointed chief engineer of the proposed new St. Louis Water Works on April 22, 1865.  (Back)

6.  For Dr. Ruggles, see Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 2 April 1863. While near Burlington, he may have visited Charles and Hannah Heyde.  (Back)

7.  LVVW was especially interested in having WW come to get her because she and Hannah hoped he would buy a place in Birmingham near Burlington, Vermont (Gay Wilson Allen, The Solitary Singer: A Critical Biography of Walt Whitman [New York: Macmillan, 1955; rev. ed., New York Univ. Press, 1967], pp. 352-53).  (Back)

Whitman Archive ID

loc.00442