I am reading Cooper's "Leatherstocking Tales"2 over again—have not looked at them for at least 25 years—did not think they were so genuine and good as I find them now to be. We had no clergiman this morning and I have just come in from officiating—reading prayers, bible, sermon &c. Since coming from chapel I have spent half an hour (as I often do) running over "November Boughs"3 "The Voice of the Rain," for instance, one of the most exquisite parables in the English, or any other language. "Robert Burns," I think, a marvellous piece of criticism. "Last of the War Cases" one of your most touching pieces, and so on turning the leaves and thinking and dreaming.
I thought that by this time I should have been able to say something definite about my jaunt east, but I cannot. Wm Gurd4 has been in N.Y. since Tuesday morning. loc_es.00427.jpg but so far I have heard no word from him—I fear something is wrong but cannot think what it is—probably it is nothing serious and when I do hear in a few days more the hitch may have been then got over. I still hope I may leave here say about two weeks from tomorrow (it may possibly be sooner) but I cannot tell whether I shall go direct to Philadelphia or to N.Y. first.
Our wet weather still continues, it has rained nearly every day since Sept. 26—the last few days snow with the rain so that the ground has been white at times I look for a fine long "Indian Summer" after all this wet, raw, and cold weather.
The "Complete Works"5 takes time, a lot of time, but that is all right—take time—enough of it, and have it right—it is worth taking pains about—it will be a standard book for many a day—to many and many it will be a sacred, an altogether priceless volume—a bible of the bibles—a resumé of them all.
RMB loc_es.00424.jpg See notes Oct 23, 1888 loc_es.00425.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).