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Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 31 July 1885
St. Louis,
July 31st 1885
My dear Walt—
I enclose a check for ten dollars payable to your order—the money comes from Chaphe 1 who wants you to send him copies of your various books so far as it will pay for them—particularly he desires to get Dr [Bosch's?] 2 book—You will remember that you sent him a copy of the "Author's Edition" of Leaves of Grass—so I suppose that may be left out—If you express the books (which I suppose would be the best way) direct them to me and we will pay the express charges at this end.
There is no particular hurry for this; you of course will leave it till you are feeling all right 3 —and the hot weather has lifted a little. In depositing this check or getting the money for it you will just write your name on the back below mine
We are all well have had a terrible seige of hot weather—yesterday—they say the heat was greater on the street level than it has been since 1838—it was 102 in the shade at my office
We were all very glad to hear from you—the telegram came all right—as did the postal 4 —I hope you are having cool weather now—and that you will have no more of the bad spells—We had a fine shower last night—and to-day it has dropped some 18 degrees—so that we are comparatively comfortable—I dont want another day like yesterday
All send love—and sincerely hope you are all right. I am trying to arrange to get on and pay you a visit some time this fall—if I can make it, I want to do it
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 July 31, 1885, 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 Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 23 February 1885. (Back)
2. Unidentified. Jeff's chirography is so unclear that this name may be Basch, Bascelles, or something else. (Back)
3. From July 20 to July 23 WW suffered from "bad vertigo fits" (William White, ed., Walt Whitman: Daybooks and Notebooks [New York: New York Univ. Press, 1978], p. 362). (Back)
4. Neither communication from WW is extant. (Back)
Whitman Archive ID
loc.00479