FEINBERG/WHITMAN MISCELLANY Rossetti, William M. -- broadside copy of letter, Mar. 17, 1876 Box 50 Folder 12 [*Includes A. Ms. corrections.*][*1253*] 1876 17 March Printed Letter to W. M. Rossetti: corrections. A. MS. (1p. 26 x 20 1/4 cm.) Written in pencil on a copy of broadside, containing a printed letter from Whitman to W. M. Rossetti, from Camden, New Jersey, U. S. America, March 17th, 1876,10 correctons: Line 1, 'and appreciated' cancelled Line 2, 'sometimes' cancelled Lines 8-9, 'As said above I have told you most of this before, but suppose you might like to know it all again, up to date' cancelled Lines 9-10, 'and pretty darkly colouring the whole, are' cancelled Line 14, 'have' cancelled Line 14, 'M' in 'Mail' marked for lower case Line 21, 'at present' cancelled Line 22, insert comma after 'myself' Line 22, change 'the' to 'my Line 22, 'have' cancelled1254 1254 M.D. Conway, in a letter to Whitman, 24 April 1876, refers to this printed letter, without corrections.CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY, U. S. AMERICA. March 17th, 1876. 431 STEVENS STREET, COR. WEST. W. M. ROSSETTI. Dear Friend,—Yours of the 28th Feb. received, and indeed welcomed [and appreciated]. I am jogging along still about the same in physical condition—still certainly no worse, and I [sometimes] lately suspect rather better, or at any rate more adjusted to the situation—Even begin to think of making some move, some change of base &c. : the doctors have been advising it for over two years, but I haven't felt to do it yet. My paralysis does not lift—I cannot walk any distance—I still have this baffling, obstinate, apparently chronic affection of the stomachic apparatus and liver : yet (as told in former letters) I get out of doors a little every day—write and read in moderation—appetite sufficiently good (eat only very plain food, but always did that)—digestion tolerable—and spirits unflagging. [As said above, I have told you most of this before, but suppose you might like to know it all again, up to date.] Of course, [and pretty darkly colouring the whole, are] bad spells, prostrations, some pretty grave ones, intervals—and I have resigned myself to the certainty of permanent incapacitation from solid work : but things may continue at least in this half-and-half way for months—even years. My books are out, the new edition ; a set of which, immediately on receiving your letter of 28th, I [have] sent you (by [M]mail, March 15), and I suppose you have before this received them. My dear friend, your offers of help, and those of my other British friends, I think I fully appreciate, in the right spirit, welcome and acceptive—leaving the matter altogether in your and their hands—and to your and their convenience, discretion, leisure, and nicety. Though poor now, even to penury, I have not so far been deprived of any physical thing I need or wish whatever, and I feel confident I shall not in the future. During my employment of seven years or more in Washington after the war (I865—72) I regularly saved a great part of my wages : and, though the sum has now become about exhausted by my expenses of the last three years, there are already beginning [at present] welcome dribbles hitherward from the sales of my new edition, which I just job and sell, myself, (as [the] my book-agents here for three years in New York [have] successively, deliberately, badly cheated me), and shall continue to dispose of the books myself. And that is the way I should prefer to glean my support. In that way I cheerfully accept all the aid my friends find it convenient to proffer. * * * * To repeat a little, and without undertaking details, understand, dear friend, for yourself and all, that I heartily and most affectionately thank my British friends, and that I accept their sympathetic generosity in the same spirit in which I believe (nay, know) it is offered—that though poor I am not in want—that I maintain good heart and cheer ; and that by far the most satisfaction to me (and I think it can be done, and believe it will be) will be to live, as long as possible, on the sales, by myself, of my own works, and perhaps, if practicable, by further writings for the press. WALT WHITMAN. * * * * I am prohibited from writing too much, and I must make this candid statement of the situation serve for all my dear friends over there.