Fritsch, Hugo

Hugo Fritsch, son of the Austrian consul, was part of the "Fred Gray Association," a group that Ed Folsom and Ken Price characterize as "a loose confederation of young men who seemed anxious to explore new possibilities of male-male affection" (“Walt Whitman”).

Whitman composed several letters to Fritsch in his post-Pfaff’s period working as a hospital volunteer during the Civil War. In one of these letters Whitman wrote, "Hugo, write oftener--you express your thoughts so perfectly--do you not know how much more agreeable to me is the conversation or writing that does not take hard paved tracks, the usual & stereotyped, but has little peculiarities & even kinks of its own, making its genuineness--its vitality? Dear friend, your letters are precious to me--none I have received from any one are more so." He continued, "I see in your letter, Hugo, you speak of my being reformed--no, I am not so frightfully reformed either, only the hot weather here does not admit of drinking heavy drinks, & there is no good lager here--then besides I have no society--I expect to prove to you & all yet that I am no backslider" (CW 1:126).

References & Biographical Resources

Miller, Edwin Haviland. "Introduction." The Correspondence of Walt Whitman: Volume I, 1842-1867. Ed. Edwin Haviland Miller. New York: New York University Press, 1961. 1-18. [more about this work]: [pages: 11]
Whitman, Walt. The Correspondence of Walt Whitman: Volume I, 1842-1867. Ed. Edwin Haviland Miller. New York: New York University Press, 1961. [more about this work]
Whitman, Walt. Letter to Hugo Fritsch. 1863. 123-124. [more about this work]
Whitman, Walt. Letter to Hugo Fritsch. 1863. 158-160. [more about this work]
Whitman, Walt. Letter to Hugo Fritsch. 1863. 125-127. [more about this work]
Whitman, Walt. Letter to Hugo Fritsch. 1863. 158-160. [more about this work]
Zweig, Paul. Walt Whitman: The Making of the Poet. New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1984. [more about this work]: [pages: 325]