The Fred Gray Association  Details about the Fred Gray Association are sketchy at best, and the extant historical documents provide only the most basic details.  Ed Folsom and Ken Price characterize the group as &quot;a loose confederation of young men who seemed anxious to explore new possibilities of male-male affection&quot; (&lt;cite&gt;Re-Scripting&lt;/cite&gt; 62).  Members of the group included Walt Whitman, Nat Bloom, and John Frederick Schiller Gray (after whom the group seems to have been named), Nat Gray, Charles Kingsley, Charles Chauncey, Hugo Fritsch, a man known only as &quot;Perkins&quot; and someone referred to as &quot;Raymond&quot; that may be Henry J. Raymond.  

Whitman&#039;s letters speak of the group&#039;s adventures while &quot;wandering the east side of the city [...] in the lager beer saloons&quot; (Allen 316).  In Whitman&#039;s memories of Pfaff&#039;s, his evenings with the Fred Gray Association &quot;conjure[d] up animation, hilarity and &#039;sparkle&#039;&quot; (Stansell 118).  

According to Stephanie Blalock, Fred Gray&#039;s military service and later marriage potentially complicate conventional wisdom about the workings of the Bohemian crowd at Pfaff&#039;s, which included other students from the New York medical community as well. Blalock argues that these links between the Broadway medical community and the frequenters at Pfaff&#039;s raise critical questions about Whitman&#039;s interests in nursing during the Civil War and about &quot;his efforts to heal the national body with his postwar editions of &lt;cite&gt;Leaves of Grass&lt;/cite&gt;&quot; (60).

References & Biographical Resources\n";
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/55726&quot;&gt;Allen, Gay Wilson. &lt;em&gt;The Solitary Singer: A Critical Biography of Walt Whitman&lt;/em&gt;. New York: MacMillan, 1955.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p class=&quot;list-group-item-text&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-note&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;Allen quotes a letter from September 11, 1864, from Whitman to William O&#039;Connor about his trip to New York.In this letter, he writes of his &quot;amusements&quot; that &quot;last night I was with some of my friends of Fred Gray association, till late wandering the east side of the city first in the lager beer saloons &amp;amp; then elsewhere&quot; (316).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-pages&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;[pages: 316]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-edit-node&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/60176&quot;&gt;Blalock, Stephanie M. &quot;&amp;#039;My Dear Comrade Frederickus&amp;#039;: Walt Whitman and Fred Gray.&quot; &lt;em&gt;Walt Whitman Quarterly Review&lt;/em&gt; 27, no. 1 (2009): 49-65.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p class=&quot;list-group-item-text&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-note&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;Blalock claims that Gray&#039;s biography sheds light on Whitman&#039;s connections with the crowd at Pfaff&#039;s as well as the broader New York medical community. Blalock suggests that Whitman&#039;s interests in Gray indicate Whitman&#039;s more literate and polished tastes above his associations with Pfaff&#039;s Bohemian crowd. Whitman&#039;s role in the Fred Gray Association can be linked to his broader interests in American literary and medical practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-pages&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-edit-node&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/55868&quot;&gt;&quot;Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman&amp;#039;s Working-Class Camerados.&quot; In &lt;em&gt;Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman&amp;#039;s Working-Class Camerados&lt;/em&gt;, edited by Charley Shively. San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1987.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/55861&quot;&gt;Folsom, Ed and Kenneth M. Price. &lt;em&gt;Re-Scripting Walt Whitman: An Introduction to His Life and Work&lt;/em&gt;. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p class=&quot;list-group-item-text&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-note&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;A loose confederation of young men who seemed anxious to explore new possibilities of male-male affection.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-pages&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;[pages: 62]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-edit-node&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/57876&quot;&gt;Folsom, Ed and Kenneth M. Price. &quot;Walt Whitman.&quot; &lt;em&gt;The Walt Whitman Archive&lt;/em&gt;, January 1, 2006.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p class=&quot;list-group-item-text&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-note&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;It was at Pfaff&#039;s,&quot; write Folsom and Price, &quot;that Whitman joined the &#039;Fred Gray Association,&#039; a loose confederation of young men who seemed anxious to explore new possibilities of male-male affection.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-pages&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-edit-node&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/60177&quot;&gt;Karbiener, Karen. &quot;Whitman at Pfaff&amp;#039;s: Personal Space, a Public Place, and the Boundary-Breaking Poems of &amp;lt;cite&amp;gt;Leaves of Grass&amp;lt;/cite&amp;gt; (1860).&quot; In &lt;em&gt;Literature of New York&lt;/em&gt;, edited by Sabrina Fuchs-Abrams. Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars, 2009.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/59959&quot;&gt;Morris, Roy Jr. &lt;em&gt;The Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil War&lt;/em&gt;. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p class=&quot;list-group-item-text&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-note&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;Suggests that the group is named after a physician&#039;s son, Frederick Schiller Gray.Members included Frederick&#039;s brother Nat, Charles Chauncey, Charles Kingsley (an athlete), and Hugo Fritsch.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-pages&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;[pages: 38, 187]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-edit-node&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/55758&quot;&gt;Stansell, Christine. &quot;Whitman at Pfaff&amp;#039;s: Commercial Culture, Literary Life and New York Bohemia at Mid-Century.&quot; &lt;em&gt;Walt Whitman Quarterly Review&lt;/em&gt; 10, no. 3 (1993): 107-126.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p class=&quot;list-group-item-text&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-note&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;Stansell writes that at Pfaff&#039;s Whitman &quot;regularly socialized with a group of young male friends -- &#039;the beautiful young men?&#039; -- dubbed the &#039;Fred Gray Association&#039; after one of their principals&quot; (107).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Stansell writes that in Whitman&#039;s memories of Pfaff&#039;s, his evenings with the Fred Gray Association &quot;conjures up animation, hilarity and &#039;sparkle&#039;&quot; (118).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-pages&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;[pages: 107,111,118]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-edit-node&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/56387&quot;&gt;Whitman, Walt. &quot;Letter to Hugo Fritsch.&quot; &lt;em&gt;Letter to Hugo Fritsch&lt;/em&gt;(1863): 125-127.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p class=&quot;list-group-item-text&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-note&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Fred Gray Association is not specifically mentioned in this letter, but both Whitman and Fritsch were core members of the group.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-pages&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-edit-node&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;article data-history-node-id=&quot;56341&quot; about=&quot;/node/56341&quot; class=&quot;node node--type-work node--view-mode-bibliography-link&quot;&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/56341&quot;&gt;Whitman, Walt. &quot;Letter to Nathaniel Bloom.&quot; &lt;em&gt;Letter to Nathaniel Bloom&lt;/em&gt;(1863): 141-143.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p class=&quot;list-group-item-text&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-note&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Fred Gray Association is not specifically mentioned in this letter, but both Whitman and Bloom were core members of the group.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-pages&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-edit-node&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;article data-history-node-id=&quot;56386&quot; about=&quot;/node/56386&quot; class=&quot;node node--type-work node--view-mode-bibliography-link&quot;&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/56386&quot;&gt;Whitman, Walt. &quot;Letter to Nathaniel Bloom, September 5, 1863.&quot; &lt;em&gt;Walt Whitman: The Correspondence&lt;/em&gt; 1, (1961): 141-143.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p class=&quot;list-group-item-text&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-note&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Fred Gray Association is not specifically mentioned in this letter, but both Whitman and Bloom were core members of the group.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-pages&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-edit-node&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;article data-history-node-id=&quot;56339&quot; about=&quot;/node/56339&quot; class=&quot;node node--type-work node--view-mode-bibliography-link&quot;&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/56339&quot;&gt;Whitman, Walt. &quot;Letter to Nathaniel Bloom and John F.S. Gray.&quot; &lt;em&gt;Letter to Nathaniel Bloom and John F.S. Gray&lt;/em&gt;(1863): 80-85.&lt;/a&gt;
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&lt;p class=&quot;list-group-item-text&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-note&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Fred Gray Association is not specifically mentioned in this letter, but Whitman, Bloom and Gray were core members of the group.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-field-mention-pages&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;views-field views-field-edit-node&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;field-content&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;article data-history-node-id=&quot;56389&quot; about=&quot;/node/56389&quot; class=&quot;node node--type-work node--view-mode-bibliography-link&quot;&gt;
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&lt;a href=&quot;/node/56389&quot;&gt;Whitman, Walt. &quot;Letter to William D. O&amp;#039;Connor, September 11, 1864.&quot; &lt;em&gt;Walt Whitman: The Correspondence&lt;/em&gt; 1, (1961): 241-242.&lt;/a&gt;
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