This letter was sent to Maria Whitney in 1878 (THJ, Hart), soon after the death of Samuel Bowles. Two passages in the letter reappear, text unaltered, in a (later?) letter from Dickinson to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (BPL Higg 106), possibly composed in June 1878 after the death of his wife. Dickinson may have remembered (or kept a record of) certain passages from the letter to Whitney when writing to Higginson. For a related fragment, see A 838 (early 1878 or last decade [THJ]). This fragment may be a trial draft for a passage in the letter, or an autonomous text, incorporated into this letter because of its momentary aptness.