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54 Manchester Road,
Bolton.
England1
Feb 17. 92
My dear Walt,
What a long long time it seems since I wrote to you & what a long dreary time you
have spent in bed!2 But, as you will doubtless know, we are & have been in constant
communication with Horace3 & Warry4—the
faithful Horace & Warry!—& know all
about you & your ups & downs.
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Some of the letters have made my heart ache with sympathy & love for you, my dear
good old Friend of friends & your illness has bound me all the closer to you
God bless you & give you peaceful days and restful nights at all times!
Warry told me about your dear little namesake, "Walt Whitman Fritzinger."5 &
how you have held him in your arms. That I am sure would delight you.
The other
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evening I read the story of "The Carpenter"6
aloud to some friends who came in to see me
& when I got to the part which told how the Carpenter sat crowded all over &
around with children who "flocked around him like birds, bloomed around him like flowers,
wreathed around him like vines, swarmed around him like bees, & close to his breast
he held the little lame girl Lilian & read on,
the mothers in the group gave way to tears.
This is a snowy day here & the snowflakes are still falling, falling, falling,
slowly, slowly,
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& transfiguring the black & grimy town into a city of beauty & radiance. Oh the
blessed, the beauteous snow!
And now I wonder how you are faring over in that upper room in Camden. Better I trust
today & freer from pain & distress
The friends here7 all send their warmest love & sympathy as does also
Yours most affectionately
J Johnston
PS I had a brief note from your friend Symonds8 today
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Correspondent:
Dr. John Johnston (1852–1927)
of Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, was a physician, photographer, and avid
cyclist. Johnston was trained in Edinburgh and served as a hospital surgeon in
West Bromwich for two years before moving to Bolton, England, in 1876. Johnston
worked as a general practitioner in Bolton and as an instructor of ambulance
classes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways. He served at Whalley Military
Hospital during World War I and became Medical Superintendent of Townley's
Hospital in 1917 (John Anson, "Bolton's Illustrious Doctor Johnston—a man
of many talents," Bolton News [March 28, 2021]; Paul
Salveson, Moorlands, Memories, and Reflections: A Centenary
Celebration of Allen Clarke's Moorlands and Memories [Lancashire
Loominary, 2020]). Johnston, along with the architect James W. Wallace, founded
the "Bolton College" of English admirers of the poet. Johnston and Wallace
corresponded with Whitman and with Horace Traubel and other members of the
Whitman circle in the United States, and they separately visited the poet and
published memoirs of their trips in John Johnston and James William Wallace, Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–1891 by Two Lancashire
Friends (London: Allen and Unwin, 1917). For more information on
Johnston, see Larry D. Griffin, "Johnston, Dr. John (1852–1927)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Walt Whitman, | 328 Mickle St | Camden | New Jersey | U.S. America It is postmarked: BOLTON | 50 | FE 17 | 92; BOLTON | 50 |
FE 17 | 92; NEW YORK | FE [illegible] |
92; PAID | L
| All | 92; CADEN,
N.J. | FEB 25 | 6AM | 92 | REC'D. [back]
- 2. On December 17, 1891,
Whitman had come down with a chill and was suffering from congestion in his
right lung. Although the poet's condition did improve in January 1892, he would
never recover. He was confined to his bed, and his physicians, Dr. Daniel
Longaker of Philadelphia and Dr. Alexander McAlister of Camden, provided care
during his final illness. Whitman died on March 26, 1892. [back]
- 3. 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]
- 4. Frank Warren Fritzinger
(1867–1899), known as "Warry," took Edward Wilkins's place as Whitman's
nurse, beginning in October 1889. Fritzinger and his brother Harry were the sons
of Henry Whireman Fritzinger (about 1828–1881), a former sea captain who
went blind, and Almira E. Fritzinger. Following Henry Sr.'s death, Warren and
his brother—having lost both parents—became wards of Mary O. Davis,
Whitman's housekeeper, who had also taken care of the sea captain and who
inherited part of his estate. A picture of Warry is displayed in the May 1891
New England Magazine (278). See Joann P. Krieg, "Fritzinger, Frederick Warren (1866–1899),"
Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), 240. [back]
- 5. Walt Whitman Fritzinger
(1891–1967) was the son of Harry Fritzinger (ca. 1866–?) and Rebecca
Heisler (ca. 1874–?). He was the nephew of the poet's nurse Warren
Fritzinger (1867–1899). [back]
- 6. "The Carpenter" is a story
about a Christ-like character based on Whitman, written by Whitman's friend and
disciple William Douglas O'Connor; it was originally published in Putnam's Monthly Magazine in January 1868, and was
included in O'Connor's posthumous Three Tales (1891), for
which Whitman wrote a preface. [back]
- 7. The "Bolton College" was a
group of Whitman admirers located in Bolton, England. Founded by Dr. John
Johnston (1852–1927) and James William Wallace (1853–1926), the
group corresponded with Whitman and Horace Traubel throughout the final years of
the poet's life. For more information on Johnston, see Larry D. Griffin, "Johnston, Dr. John (1852–1927)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). For more information on Wallace, see Larry D.
Griffin, "Wallace, James William (1853–1926)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 8. John Addington Symonds
(1840–1893), a prominent biographer, literary critic, and poet in
Victorian England, was author of the seven-volume history Renaissance in Italy, as well as Walt
Whitman—A Study (1893), and a translator of Michelangelo's
sonnets. But in the smaller circles of the emerging upper-class English
homosexual community, he was also well known as a writer of homoerotic poetry
and a pioneer in the study of homosexuality, or sexual inversion as it was then
known. See Andrew C. Higgins, "Symonds, John Addington [1840–1893]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]