Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 31 December 1881
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Asylum for the Insane,1
London,
31st Dec.
1881
My dear Walt
Just a line to tell you that we have another fine boy born about an hour ago2—both mother and child are well
Your friend R M Bucke
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Correspondent:
Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a
Canadian physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and
meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke
claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him
to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany.
Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt
Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one
of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of
Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. There is a vertical line drawn across Bucke's letter, and on the back Whitman drafted part of a piece titled "An Hour at Kenosha Summit," which first appeared in Specimen Days and Collect as "An Hour on Kenosha Summit" (1882–83). [back]
- 2. Robert Walpole was the last of Bucke's eight children. [back]