Walt Whitman to John Harrison Littlefield, 1 December 1868

About This Item

Title: Walt Whitman to John Harrison Littlefield, 1 December 1868
Date: December 1, 1868
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: loc.01681
Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.

Notes for this letter were created by Whitman Archive staff and/or were derived from Walt Whitman, The Correspondence, ed. Edwin Haviland Miller, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–1977), and supplemented or updated by Whitman Archive staff.
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Walt Whitman to John Harrison Littlefield, 1 December 1868." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 15 February 2026. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.01681.xml (TEI)

loc.01681.001.jpg Attorney General's Office, Washington, Dec. 1, 1868. Mr. Littlefield. Dear Sir:1

I have been very much occupied, since I saw you—& wish you to accept my apoligies for not coming to see you, & sit, &c. I appreciate your courtesy, & invitation—& hope to be soon more at leisure, & in the vein for sitting.

Walt Whitman

loc.01681.002.jpg

Notes

1. John Harrison Littlefield (1835–1902) advertised himself in the Washington Directory of 1869 as an artist and publisher; see also Daniel Trowbridge Mallett's Mallett's Index of Artists (New York: Peter Smith, 1948). The Republican publishers of the Washington Daily Morning Chronicle in 1868 were offering to new subscribers Littlefield's steel engraving of Grant. [back]