Camden
Feb 22 '87—noon
Nothing further from O'Connor.1 See pp. 39 and 40 in Dr
Buckes2 book ab't the wife & their hospitality to
me—they had two children, a boy died in early childhood—the girl died
not long since aged 22 or 33—a fine girl—I
knew her quite well—I cant get over what you say ab't Trowbridge4—tell me
the particulars5—I am sitting here in the little front room writing
this—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
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).
Notes
- 1. William Douglas O'Connor
(1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet
The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866.
For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 2. 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). [back]
- 3. Jean O'Connor died in May
1883 (see the letter from Whitman to Kennedy of May 24,
1882), about the time Bucke's Walt Whitman was
being printed. [back]
- 4. John Townsend Trowbridge
(1827–1916) was a novelist, poet, author of juvenile stories, and
anti-slavery reformer. Though Trowbridge became familiar with Whitman's poetry
in 1855, he did not meet Whitman until 1860, when the poet was in Boston
overseeing the Thayer and Eldridge edition of Leaves of
Grass. For several weeks in 1863, Trowbridge stayed with Whitman in
Washington, D.C., along with John Burroughs and William D. O'Connor. [back]
- 5. Whitman is concerned here
about Trowbridge's claim that Emerson was the inspiration for Leaves of Grass; see Whitman's letter to Kennedy of February 25, 1887. [back]