Sage
Whitman's Caretakers
The disabled Whitman had a series of caretakers and companions
in Camden, New Jersey. He credited the Stafford family with saving
his life after his stroke. He visited them at their New Jersey
home at Timber Creek, where he found the natural beauty healing.
He and the Stafford's son Harry had an intense relationship. Housekeeper
Mary Davis (1837-1908) became indispensable to Whitman when he
bought his own home on Mickle Street in 1884, as was Warren "Warry" Fritzinger,
who nursed him in his final illness. When Samuel Clemens (Mark
Twain) and others pitched in to buy Whitman a horse and buggy in
the 1880s, another long-time assistant, Bill Duckett served as
driver.
Last Works
"A Thought of Columbus" was Whitman's last poem. He gave his friend
and executor Horace Traubel the draft ten days before he died,
and it was published posthumously in July 1892. The "Deathbed edition"of
1891-1892 was the final version of Leaves of Grass produced
with Whitman's oversight. It used the arrangement of poems from
the 1881 Osgood edition, with corrections, plus annexes of works
written between 1882 and 1891 ("Sands at Seventy," "Good-Bye My
Fancy"), and concluded with the farewell essay, "A Backward Glance
O'er Travel'd Roads."
Writing in Camden
Even confined to his bedroom, Whitman continued to write and revise
in his final years. This image, created using a primitive method
of flash photography, shows the poet surrounded by piles of manuscripts,
many of which are now in the Library of Congress. Whitman refused
offers to "clean up," and claimed he could locate any page in the
chaos. His last new title was a selection of poems and prose reflecting
on old poets, old age, death and faith. The complete manuscript
of his "Good-bye" to literature and life is 112 pages of many sizes.
Thirty-one of the poems were added as a Second Annex to the "deathbed" edition.
Whitman's spectacles
Manuscript Division (55)
Last Breaths of Life
One of the poet's three literary heirs, Horace Traubel, like Samuel
Johnson's Boswell, faithfully recorded the author's every conversation
during his last four years. Traubel's diary includes many entries
for the final day, as it records each gasp after the doctor said
death would come "very soon." Another heir, lawyer Thomas Harned
(1851-1921), also was at the bedside along with Whitman's physician
and caretakers. Whitman died exactly as the sun set. He designed
his own tomb to resemble poet-artist William Blake's etching "Death's
Door."
Horace Traubel (1858-1919)
Diary notes, March 26, 1892
Page 2
Manuscript Division (61)
Partial Transcription
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