Charles L. Heyde to Walt Whitman, 2 March 1889

 duk.00413.001_large.jpg U.A WOODBURY PROP. Van Ness and American Hotels L.S. DREW H.N. CLARK MANAGERS Burlington Vermont. The Van Ness House has a Safety Hydraulic Passenger Elevator Fire Escape and the Grinnell Automatic Sprinkler Van Ness House Fine Views of the Lakes and Mountains from all parts of the House Burlington Vt. March 2 1889 Bro. Walt.

Han1 just recieved your letter, with kind enclosure of 1 dollar for herself. Success of your book abroad gives great satisfaction. She is not very strong, but does her best, and very much. I am embarressed​ at times greatly to procure necessaries for house—coal etc—Weather has been very unusually cold—is warmer now— Mrs Tyler2 made  duk.00413.002_large.jpg us a visit—saw your card/postal, and was surprised at the vigor of your handwriting. I thought Mr Bucke3 might purchase a picture of Canada Chute, could he see one, for his enthusiasm and enduring regard for you (to help us) but I did not write—one grows desperate under difficulties you know, and my apprehension about our home and home has made me despondent. I now carry a painting out, and get what I can for it—bad business regarding prices.

C. L. Heyde

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Notes

• 1. Hannah Louisa (Whitman) Heyde (1823–1908), youngest sister of Walt Whitman, married Charles Louis Heyde (ca. 1820–1892), a Pennsylvania-born landscape painter. Charles Heyde was infamous among the Whitmans for his offensive letters and poor treatment of Hannah. Hannah and Charles Heyde lived in Burlington, Vermont. For more, see Paula K. Garrett, "Whitman (Heyde), Hannah Louisa (d. 1908)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
• 2. As yet we have no information about this person. [back]
• 3. 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]