FEINBERG/WHITMAN GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Towbridge, John T. Dec. 1863 - Dec. 1877 Box 17 Folder 32Boston, Dec 21, 1863 Dear Walt, I am here at the bedside of your friend Babbitt in the Mason Hospital. I read him your letter; & he wishes me to say to you that he would be glad to answer your letters to him if he was able. He is in about the same condition he has been in for 3 months. He wishes to go home to his friends in Barre, & could get his discharge, but Dr Bliss of the Armory Sq. Hospital neglects to send on his descriptive list although the surgeon here has written to him for it. No doubt you can see to having it sent.days before I can get them packed & sent. —Let me hear from you. I write in haste with numb fingers — It is bitter cold here today. Yours, J. T. Trowbridge. Mr. Babbitt's father, who has been out with the 53rd is going out again & he is anxious to get his son home before he leaves. The descriptive list is the only thing missing now to procure his discharge. Your friend wishes you to see Dr. Bliss, & write to him what he says about it. I shall come & see him whenever I come to town. What he needs is sympathizing friends around him. He is very lonesome lying here on his back, with no Walt Whitman to cheer him up. I have been to see about getting together a package of books for you, but the booksellers are so busy it will be severalSomerville Feb. 12, 1864 My dear Walt Whitman. I have not seen your friend Babbitt since he left the Mason Hospital (about the time I wrote you before); but I have been there to inquire about him. Three days ago I called, & a soldier who had recently seen him reported him the importance to us will perhaps interest you. A boy was born to me yesterday—a lusty little chap, fat, well formed__ weight ten lbs. Mother doing well thus far. I have seen the new moon over my right shoulder to some purpose lately. A few days ago I wrote a letter about you to Secretary Chase. I hope you will yet hear from him. He acknowledged at the time the receipt of the book you handed him; so I knew the package must have reached you. I am heartily glad if the books have been put to any use. How is your friend Brown who was to lose his foot? Good bye. Your friend, J. T. Trowbridge Give my love to the O'Connors.as practically regaining his strength, though not his voice. He is able to go out a little. He is with (or near) some good friends of his, who are no doubt a comfort to him. What you write me of yourself & of your experiences, interests me, & makes me almost envy you the privilege of being with our noble unfortunate solders. You ought to write the epic of this war. By the way, has anything been done with "Drum=Taps"? O'Connor said he would communicate with Carleton on the subject. I have spoken with one publisher here about this; but he did not bite. An item of great domesticmental energies in rapid writing I may be able to do something excellent. I am about getting out a volume of poems, - or, as you would say, prettinesses. Sincerely your friend J. T. Trowbridge Walt Whitman Somerville Mass Jan 6th 1865 My Dear Friend, I have been thinking much of you lately & wondering where you are (for I heard some time since that you had left Washington), when the N. Y. Times came with your long & interesting communication. I do not yet, from reading that, understand very well where you are, & I send this at a venture. If this reaches you, please let me know your address, & I will try to send you something to help along your good work. I sent you, over the last summer, by private hands, a copy of "Great Expectations" & two dollars in money but could never learn that they reached you: did they? How are you now? A great change has taken place in my life since I saw you. My dearest friend has left me, leaving in her place a little boy, now eleven months old. — A superb little fellow (although I say it), & in him I have great comfort. I went three times to find Dr. LeBarren Russell, with your note in my hand, but failing each time, I gave him up. I am now trying to withdraw from the arena of popular literature: only the necessity of earning a livelihood has kept me in it so long. I feel that, if I live frugally & sincerely, & do not use up my[*see notes Oct 21 + 23d 1888*] SOMERVILLE FEB 13 MS J T Trowbridge Walt Whitman Care of Major Hapgood Paymaster U.S.A Washington, D.C.[*see note Sept 7 + 9 1888*] Somerville 7 Jan Mass Walt Whitman Care of Maj. Hapgood Paymaster USA Washington, D.C. Trowbridge[*see note Aug 8 1888*] J. T. Trowbridge Walt Whitman Care Major Hapgood Paymaster USA Washington D.C. Boston Dec 21 MassWalt Whitman Attorney General's Office Washington, D.C. Trowbridge - Jan 5-67 Liason Gen'l CotringN. Cambridge, Mass. Jan 1, 1867 A happy New Year, my dear friend! - And here is a bit of lucre for your new vol. of "Leaves". How are you, these days? I had a delightful letter from W. D. O'C. yesterday. Thank him for me. Ever Yours J. T. Trowbridge Walt Whitman.[*Atty Genls*] [*see note Jan 10 1889*] J. T. Trowbridge Walt Whitman Attorney General's Office Washington D.C.long & eloquent letter, received I don't dare say how long ago. I am hungry to see you & Mr. & Mrs. O'C again; if you or they can come near me, you must surely visit me. Sincerely your friend J. T. Trowbridge Arlington, Mass. July 20. 1867. My Dear Friend, W. H. Piper Co. of Boston say they would like to place your new edition of the "Leaves" in their counter & sell it as they sell other books. They would take, say, 50 copies to begin with. There is a small continuous dropping in demand for the "Leaves" & copies of the Thayer & Eldridge edition sell for $5. You might write directly to W. H. Piper, using my name. He will be a good man to retail the book: he would also have undertaken to publish & push it but for the opposition of others. Mr. Newton was not able to call on you for the little volume you wished to send me by him. It came by mail, — through W. D. O'C's agency, I perceive, with a N. Y. Times enclosed. I thank you both. I had already bought a copy of the critique, but as a friend had carried it off, I was very glad to get another. It is a unique & delightful little treatise: how bold & fresh & native! I hope someday to see the author. My love to the O'Connors. I owe Wm for a[*see notes Aug 29 & 30, '88*] Arlington, Mass. Apr. 30. 1875 My Dear Friend, I think I have all of your books (2 or 3 editions of some) except the last, - specified in my former note, — which alone I intended to ask you. That might be sent by mail. I wrote this because in your card you speakof sending me books, & because I really desire only one. I still go back occasionally to the old "Leaves of Grass" & find in them the same unfailing freshness & power, which repeated re-readings in no wise dull to the sense - a list which only master strokes in literature can stand. They seem very great to me. I am thankful for them. Faithfully yours J. T. Trowbridge Walt WhitmanArlington, Mass Apr. 26, 1876 Walt Whitman My Dear Friend I enclose a P.O. order for $10, in payment for a copy of your last book "Two Rivulets" if it is now ready, or whenever it is ready. As always, sincerely, your friend J. T. Trowbridge[*see note Aug 29 + 30 88*] Alington, Mass. Dec. 2, 1877 Dear Friend Whitman, By the time you got this, I suppose you will have received "The Book of Gold", which I have asked for you from the publishing house. I think you will find some things in it that will interest you. I have heard nothing Letter from J. T. Trowbridge Dec 2 '77from the projected bust of you, for a long while. The last time I saw it, nearly a year ago, it had quite lost headway. I hope, however, that Muse will take a new departure, & finally succeed. I see that somebody has stepped forward to "defend" you (in a mild way) in the contributors' club of the last Atlantic. I am astonished that these latter-day critics should have so little to say of the first "Leaves of Grass", or venture to speak of them only apologetically. They still stand to me as the most powerful prophetic utterances in modern literature. I have now two dear little girls, and we are all pretty well. I trust you are comfortable. J. T. Trowbridge.