Camden,
March 27 1883
...the type-setting on Dr. Bucke's book is about completed.1
W. W.
Notes
- 1. In 1883 Whitman arranged
with David McKay, his Philadelphia publisher, to print Bucke's Walt Whitman (1883). The poet personally supervised publication,
including proofreading. The typesetting of Bucke's biography was completed on
March 31 (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the
Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.).
Bucke generated some of the text, but Whitman controlled every detail, altering
the proofs at will. On March 20, Bucke wrote: "I
open and read these parcels of proof in fear and trembling (you must go as easy
as you can, you are the terrible surgeon with the knife & saw and saw the
patient). You left out my remarks on 'Children of Adam', I believe they were
good but I acquiesce—your additions are excellent as they have been all
through." On May 28 Bucke was pleased with the
book he and Whitman had produced: "I believe it will do, and if it will the
Editor will deserve more credit than the Author—I am really surprised at
the tact and judgement you have displayed in putting my rough M. S. into shape
and I am more than satisfied with all you have done." Bucke, however, was not
quite so pleased with Whitman's high-handed treatment of his book as his letters
to the poet indicate. For in a letter on August 19 to O'Connor, who on August 16
objected to "several omissions and commissions," Bucke wrote: "I do not care to
go into these matters by letter but when you come [to Canada] I will make every
thing clear to your comprehension" (Library of Congress). [back]