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St. Louis, Feb 5th 1873

I write to say that Mattie is very sick—that although yet hopeful—I fear very much that in some of the paroxisms of coughing she may become so weak that she will not rally again—most of the time she continues cheerful and good—but at times her sufferings are too much for her to bear—as good as she always has been about such things

Of course we will all hope and pray for the best—yet you must not be surprised to hear that it is all over with the dear soul at any time—I have written to Walt ¹   —I wish Walt would come and see her—do you not think he would ²   —Love to all

affectionately Jeff

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 February 5, 1873, 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.

1.  This letter is not extant.  (Back)

2.  Unfortunately, WW had suffered a paralytic stroke on January 23 and could not leave his rooms (see Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., Walt Whitman: The Correspondence [New York: New York Univ. Press, 1961-77], Vol. II, p. 196). LVVW wrote two letters to Jeff about the poet's stroke but neither one reached its destination (LVVW to Helen Price, February 12, 1873 [The Pierpont Morgan Library]).  (Back)

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