In 1873, Whitman suffered a paralytic
stroke and, in May the same year, his mother Louisa Whitman died; both events left him depressed. Louisa was in Camden, New Jersey at the time and Whitman arrived three days before her death. He returned to
Washington, D. C., where he had been living, only briefly before returning to Camden to live with his brother George, paying room and board. Whitman spent the Christmas of 1883 with friends in
Germantown, Pennsylvania while his brother was building a farmhouse in
Burlington, New Jersey that included accommodations for the poet. Instead of moving with his brother, however, Whitman purchased the Mickle Street House in Camden in the spring of 1884. He was 65, and it was the first home he owned. Whitman called it his "shanty" or "coop", emphasizing its shabbiness. His brother George did not approve of the purchase and the decision strained their relationship. Others questioned Whitman's judgment as well. A friend called it "the worst house and the worst situated". Another friend noted it "was the last place one would expect a poet to select for a home." Lay continued to live there with his wife, cooking to cover part of their rent Whitman later invited Mary Davis, a sailor's widow living a few blocks away, to serve as his housekeeper in exchange for free rent in the house. She moved in on February 24, 1885, bringing with her a cat, a dog, two turtledoves, a canary, and other assorted animals. During a yearlong tour of the United States in 1882,
Oscar Wilde visited Whitman at this home. The two writers shared
elderberry wine and Wilde later reflected, "There is no one in this great wide world of America home I love and honor so much". Another international visitor, an admirer named John Johnston, described meeting Whitman on a hot summer day in 1890, sitting cross-legged on a large rocking chair with his shirt open and sleeves rolled up above his elbows. While living in the home, Whitman completed several poems, many focused on public events. One was a
sonnet published in the February 22, 1885, issue of the
Philadelphia Press called "Ah, Not This Granite Dead and Cold" which commemorated the completion of the
Washington Monument. In this home, he also prepared an anthology of essays and articles
November Boughs. which he visited often during its construction. In the last week of his life, too weak to lift a knife or fork, he wrote: "I suffer all the time: I have no relief, no escape: it is monotony — monotony — monotony — in pain." He spent his last years preparing a final edition of
Leaves of Grass. At the end of 1891, he wrote to a friend: "L. of G.
at last complete—after 33 y'rs of hackling at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old". In January 1892, an announcement was published in the New York
Herald in which Whitman asked that "this new 1892 edition... absolutely supersede all previous ones. Faulty as it is, he decides it as by far his special and entire self-chosen poetic utterance." The final edition of
Leaves of Grass was published in 1892 and is referred to as the "deathbed edition". Whitman died at 6:43 p.m. on March 26, 1892, a few days before his 73rd birthday. His
autopsy was performed at the home and revealed that the left lung had collapsed and the right was at one-eighth its breathing capacity. In his final years, Whitman had noted his appreciation for the house and for Camden. He wrote, "Camden was originally an accident—but I shall never be sorry. I was left over in Camden. It has brought me blessed returns." ==Modern history==