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Correspondence
Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 31 May 1889
St. Louis,
May 31, 1889
1
To Walt Whitman—
Congratulations on reaching the seventy notch. Hope you will complete another score.
Jeff sent WW this telegram on the occasion of the poet's seventieth birthday. It is reprinted from Camden's Compliment to Walt Whitman: May 31, 1889: Notes, Addresses, Letters, Telegrams , ed. Horace L. Traubel (Philadelphia: David McKay), p. 71, and is the last known message between the brothers.
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 May 31, 1889, is likely no longer extant. The text of the letter appears in Camden's Compliment to Walt Whitman: May 31, 1889: Notes, Addresses, Letters, Telegrams, ed. Horace L. Traubel (Philadephia: David McKay, 1889).
For more information on the letters of Thomas Jefferson Whitman, see Dennis Berthold and Kenneth Price's introduction to the print edition.
Whitman Archive ID
med.00300