Sweeney, Frank

In "Whitman Pursued," Emory Holloway describes Frank Sweeney as someone with whom Walt Whitman discussed his relationship with the mysterious Ellen Eyre. Whitman mentions Sweeney in one of his many notebook listings of the men of the city he knew: "Frank Sweeney (July 8th ’62), 5th Ave. Brown face, large features, black moustache (is the one I told the whole story to about Ellen Eyre)--talks very little" (Holloway, “Whitman” 7). Holloway explains that "[w]ho Sweeney was can only be conjectured. His name does not appear in either New York or Brooklyn directories for this period, nor does any other Sweeney with a Fifth Avenue Address. The indefinite ’5th Ave.’ may therefore have referred to the Fifth Avenue line of busses, which Whitman says he frequented, fraternizing with the drivers" (7).