Hannah Whitman Heyde : The Complete Correspondence / edited by Maire Mullins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Whitman Heyde [1823-1908], Hannah, Author.

Contributor:

Mullins, Maire, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Heyde, Hannah Louisa Whitman, 1823-1908. Correspondence.

Heyde, Hannah Louisa Whitman.

Abused wives--United States--Correspondence.

Abused wives.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (229 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Lewisburg, PA : Bucknell University Press, [2022]

Summary:

The correspondence of Hannah Whitman Heyde (1823-1908), younger sister of poet Walt Whitman, provides a rare glimpse into the life of a nineteenth-century woman. Married to well-known Vermont landscape artist Charles Louis Heyde (1820-1892), Hannah documented in letters to her mother, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman (1795-1873), and other family members, her lived experience of ongoing physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her husband. Hannah has long been characterized in biographical and scholarly studies of Whitman’s family as a neurotic and a hypochondriac—a narrative promulgated by Heyde himself—but Walt Whitman carefully preserved his sister’s letters, telling his literary biographer that his intention was to document her plight. Hannah’s complete letters, gathered here for the first time and painstakingly edited and annotated by Maire Mullins, provide an important counternarrative, allowing readers insight into the life of a real nineteenth-century woman, sister, and wife to famous men, who endured and eventually survived domestic violence.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Preface and Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Whitman Family Genealogy

Introduction

The Complete Correspondence

1. 1852–1853: Letters 1–3 “I am afraid you will be plagued to read this. . . .”

2. 1855: Letters 4–9 “I have more to regret than any of you. . . .”

3. 1856: Letters 10–19 “I hope I shall not die in a hotel. . . .”

4. 1858–1861: Letters 20–27 “I am afraid I have done wrong in telling you. . . .”

5. 1862–1865: Letters 28–37 “Have you heard from George

6. 1866–1868: Letters 38–42 “. . . this is only a line. . . .”

7. 1872–1873: Letters 43–51 “. . . try to not greive. . . .”

8. 1879–1892: Letters 52–62 “. . . I only wish I could do something for you. . . .”

9. 1905: Letter 63 “the birth place of my brother Walt Whitman”

Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of the Whitman Family

Appendix B: Obituary of Hannah Whitman Heyde

Appendix C: Letters from Hannah Whitman Heyde

Bibliography

Index

About the Editor and Author

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Mullins, Maire Hannah Whitman Heyde

ISBN:

9781684483648

1684483646

OCLC:

1287129219