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Walt Whitman to Richard Maurice Bucke, 26 August 1888

Warm & pleasant—nothing very new or different—I enclose you a print of frontispiece under which is to go

The 70th year taken from life.2

My Complete Works3, ab't 900 pp Vol: will be put to press nearly contemporaneously with the Nov. Boughs4—I can carry out the enterprises thro' Horace5 as if I could do it personally—perhaps better—At any rate I couldn't do it other how—Somehow strangely I don't recover strength or personal activity or any thing of that sort, the least particle—I have not left my sick room yet at all—am sitting here now—Agnes Traubel6 has just called—bro't some nice fruit—Mr Traubel7 pere called Friday—


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. | Aug 26 | 5 PM | 88. [back]
  • 2. Whitman enclosed the frontispiece of November Boughs (1888). [back]
  • 3. Whitman wanted to publish a "big book" that included all of his writings, and, with the help of Horace Traubel, Whitman made the presswork and binding decisions for the volume. Frederick Oldach bound Whitman's Complete Poems & Prose (1888), which included a profile photo of the poet on the title page. The book was published in December 1888. For more information on the book, see Ed Folsom, Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman: A Catalog and Commentary (University of Iowa: Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, 2005). [back]
  • 4. 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]
  • 5. Horace L. Traubel (1858–1919) was an American essayist, poet, and magazine publisher. He is best remembered as the literary executor, biographer, and self-fashioned "spirit child" of Walt Whitman. During the late 1880s and until Whitman's death in 1892, Traubel visited the poet virtually every day and took thorough notes of their conversations, which he later transcribed and published in three large volumes entitled With Walt Whitman in Camden (1906, 1908, & 1914). After his death, Traubel left behind enough manuscripts for six more volumes of the series, the final two of which were published in 1996. For more on Traubel, see Ed Folsom, "Traubel, Horace L. [1858–1919]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 6. Agnes Traubel Lychenheim (1881–1923) was Horace Traubel's sister. She married Dr. Morris Lychenheim, an osteopathic physician from Chicago. [back]
  • 7. Whitman is referring to Horace Traubel's father, Maurice Traubel, a printer and lithographer born in Germany. [back]
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