Camden1
Noon
Sept 10 '88
I rec'd a card f'm Rolleston,2 Ireland, that he had the first
proofs of the German L of G. from the printing office3—& wish'd me to communicate with Dr Knortz4—Your letters reach me & are always welcome—I keep up—but
gain not—am & have been reading the latter two Carlyle books (Froude and
Cabot)5—not exactly you would say the cheery
pabulum fit for me—raw, wet, cloudy weather here—H Gilchrist6 came this forenoon to inquire, but did not come up to my
room—I guess Kennedy's7 MS is in abeyance yet8—the Japanee Hartmann9 is going
to try some essay-readings (European, great but here in
America almost unknown persons & art—productions &c)—good luck
to him!—("God help all wanderers" said the cute Irish kitchen girl, giving out
some bread & meat to the tramp at the gate the other day)—The strength of
my arms & shoulders remains good—the mentality grip ditto—spirits
fairly ditto—we think of binding Nov. Boughs10 in wine colored silesia (a sort
of linen—cheap)—& entirely untrimm'd—
Walt Whitman
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. This letter is addressed:
Dr R M Bucke | Asylum | London | Ontario | Canada. It is postmarked: Camden,
N.J. | Sep 10 | 8(?) | 88. [back]
- 2. Thomas William Hazen Rolleston
(1857–1920) was an Irish poet and journalist. After attending college in
Dublin, he moved to Germany for a period of time. He wrote to Whitman
frequently, beginning in 1880, and later produced with Karl Knortz the first
book-length translation of Whitman's poetry into German. In 1889, the collection
Grashalme: Gedichte [Leaves of
Grass: Poems] was published by Verlags-Magazin in Zurich, Switzerland.
See Walter Grünzweig, Constructing the German Walt Whitman (Iowa
City: University of Iowa Press, 1995). For more information on Rolleston, see
Walter Grünzweig, "Rolleston, Thomas William Hazen (1857–1920)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. This is an accurate
summary of Rolleston's note to Whitman of September 1,
1888. [back]
- 4. Karl Knortz
(1841–1918) was born in Prussia and came to the U.S. in 1863. He was the
author of many books and articles on German-American affairs and was
superintendent of German instruction in Evansville, Ind., from 1892 to 1905. See
The American-German Review 13 (December 1946),
27–30. His first published criticism of Whitman appeared in the New York
Staats-Zeitung Sonntagsblatt on December 17, 1882,
and he worked with Thomas W. H. Rolleston on the first book-length translation
of Whitman's poetry, published as Grashalme in 1889. For
more information about Knortz, see Walter Grünzweig, "Knortz, Karl (1841–1918)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. Whitman is referring to
James Anthony Froude's Thomas Carlyle; A History of the First
Forty Years of His Life, 1795–1835 (1882) and Thomas Carlyle; A History of His Life in London, 1834–1881
(1884), and James Elliot Cabot's A Memoir of Ralph Waldo
Emerson (1887). For Whitman's evaluation of Froude, see Horace Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, Monday, September 3, 1888. [back]
- 6. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist
(1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter
and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro,
"Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 7. William Sloane Kennedy
(1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also
published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on
the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander
Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman,
in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse
indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was
"too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February
1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 8. On September 2, 1888, Richard Maurice Bucke inquired
about Kennedy's projected book: "I fear publishers are not smiling upon
him—fifty years from now they would be glad enough to get it" (Feinberg).
Kennedy in his letter of September 4, 1888 (?)
wrote that he was copying over his "Whitman MS. . . . I don't see much prospect
of my book on you seeing the light soon" (Feinberg; Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Wednesday, September 5, 1888). [back]
- 9. Carl Sadakichi Hartmann (ca.
1867–1944) was an art historian and early critic of photography as an art
form. He visited Whitman in Camden in the 1880s and published his conversations
with the poet in 1895. Generally unpopular with other supporters of the poet, he
was known during his years in Greenwich Village as the "King of Bohemia." For
more information about Hartmann, see John F. Roche, "Hartmann, C. Sadakichi (ca. 1867–1944)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 10. Whitman's November Boughs was published in October 1888 by Philadelphia
publisher David McKay. For more information on the book, see James E. Barcus
Jr., "November Boughs [1888]," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]