I have yours of 31st ult.1 Have written Forman as you suggest and have also written McKay (send you enclosed a copy of the letter that you may see plainly on what footing you are with him). If the book is published in London before it is pubd in America I believe the copyright will be as safe as the bank of England. Archie Bremner2 is still here on the staff of "Advertiser"—The notice in the "Press"3 was very gratifying, hope you will send me any you can particularly the adverse ones—You do not say anything about sending copies as I asked you in my last, I take it for granted loc_es.00204.jpg meantime that you will attend to this—and also that you will have balance of my ten copies sent me here soon as convenient—The weather here now is perfect and the grounds look better than I have ever seen them We are all well and send you love
R M BuckeCorrespondent:
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).