Pleasant weather warmish but not hot—my body strength & head grip low ebb still—not much different—no going ahead & no serious ebb—a bad day yesterday, brain thick & body sluggish—but to-day quite a movement bowel quite decided—used (instigated) (by a little syringe a little longer than your small finger) a small injection of glycerine—young Dr. Mitchell2 suggested it yesterday afternoon—I feel better I suppose as I sit here, but my head is thick yet— A good letter from John Burroughs3 this morning—all as usual with him—(a dear friend personal & literary)4—
2 o'clock P M—a good letter from you wh' I will read a second time—I turn around & eat a couple of nice California pears. I send you pp 82 to 92 inclusive proof sheets,5 those are all the printers given me to date—I am still sitting up—have my dinner ab't 5—(now after 3 & I got up ab't 10½)—am middling comfortable—quiet afternoon—Shall lie down on the bed—generally fair spirits—
Walt WhitmanCorrespondent:
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).