We are having a devil of a time so don't be uneasy if my letters shd seem a little "off the center." Our Western Fair has begun in London and the Asylum is full from morning to night of people to see friends and people to see through the institution—it is a perfect babel. Office half full all the time of men and women asking after friends (patients in asylum) whether they are better? Are they going to get better? What was the cause of their insanity? &c &c &c. Meanwhile I ought to be writing loc_es.00389.jpg my annual report—the meter2 too is likely to call on me for some attention before the week is out, besides other matters, so you see I am not likely to get dull for want of some occupation. The weather keeps lovely and all is well with us. I still hope to see you between the middle and end of Oct.
I hope you are having pleasant weather and that all is going well with the books—I hope to see a copy of "November Boughs"3 this week and one of the "Complete Works"4 in the course of next week.
Love to you always Your friend RM Bucke loc_es.00386.jpg See notes Sept 27, '88. loc_es.00387.jpgCorrespondent:
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).