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The Walt Whitman Archive

St. Louis, April 18th 1869

The package of "Reports" ²   and afterwards your letter were received—I intended before this to write you and return thanks for the same—but like many other of my "good intentions," I failed in it.  I am under great obligations to you for the Reports—they furnished me with just the information I needed and you will please receive my most sincere thanks

In your letter you spoke of trying to get me some other reports of a like nature  I am very greedy to get these things and shall probably show it in my letters.  Anything you can send me in the Report line will be of great use and a great favor to me

Matters are going about as usual with me—the works are progressing slowly—but we are doing pretty good work  I wish you might be able to pay us a visit—I would take great pleasure in showing you what we are doing, and telling what we intend to do.

I hav'nt heard from Walt for a long time, although I have written him several times.  I hope he is well and that the change of "government" will not hurt either you or him

I remember with a great deal of pleasure my visit to Washington ³   and hope that during the coming season I shall be enabled to see you all again—if I get East during the summer I certainly shall manage to get around to see you all

I have again commenced keeping house—my wife was not so well boarding as when we are keeping house.  I think I have a good dry house this time ⁴   —and quite convenient too—for a St. Louis house

My wife is better than she was in Brooklyn but not as well as when we first came back from the east.  I hope she will get better now that she is so fixed that she can have better food than when boarding  The children are as well as ever—

Please remember me to your wife and family—I hope they are well—and when you see Walt tell him we are all as usual—I remain yours very truly

Thos. J Whitman

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 April 18, 1869, is held in the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the New York Public Library.

For more information on the letters of Thomas Jefferson Whitman, see Dennis Berthold and Kenneth Price's introduction to the print edition.

1.  See Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to William Douglas O'Connor, 16 March 1865.  (Back)

2.  Presumably six copies of the Delafield pamphlet.  See Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 25 March 1869.  (Back)

3.  See Letter from Thomas Jefferson Whitman to Walt Whitman, 2 August 1867.  (Back)

4.  The Jefferson Whitmans had evidently moved into 934 Hickory, where they lived until 1873.  Joseph P. Davis boarded with them until he left around March 1870 to build the waterworks in Lowell, Massachusetts (Waldron, p. 68).  (Back)

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