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Harry Buxton Forman to Walt Whitman, 17 October 1891

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Your card of the 27th of September2 reached me along with the parcels of books. Thanks many & hearty for your prompt attention to my requests, dear Walt Whitman. The big Bible for my boy will "go home," I feel certain. Your inscription in it is beautiful; and the lad will value the book more and more as  loc.02104.002_large.jpg he grows older. I should have judged from the vigour and firmness of the writing that you had taken a start for the better; but I must not assume more than the words of your card authorize, "right arm, mentality, and fair spirits." The Sculptor's profile3 for "Goodbye my Fancy"4 is very impressive and grand.  loc.02104.003_large.jpg The parcels contained 1 Complete Works,5 2 "Good-Bye my Fancy,"6 1 "As a Strong Bird,"7 1 Burroughs,8 1 "Democratic Vistas,"9 & 1 "Gras-halme."10 You say more to follow, "especially new issue of Leaves"11: of this last I am very glad, & hope you will write in it for me; but I think that will use up the money I sent, in all probability; so I send some more. What I wanted "Democratic Vistas," "As a Strong Bird," "Passage to India,"12 & "After All"13 for was to have inscribed  loc.02104.004_large.jpg copies from you. If you conclude to indulge me you can still send them against the present remittance; and I should like, besides, the cloth covered & inscribed "Good-Bye," six more of the unbound copies like the 2 you sent. Then I should be glad of another lot of "Portraits Well-Enveloped"14 such as I had a year or so ago, and one or two spare "sculptor's profiles." Bucke15 says you like doing these little business matters &  loc.02104.005_large.jpg hearing direct from us now & again. But if I worry you with my minutiae you need not take any notice of me.

Next parcel might contain with advantage one or two facsimiles of your birthday bulletin16 to Dr. Johnston17; and finally, if you advise me of dispatch, will you  loc.02104.006_large.jpg this time do so on one of the yellow bits of paper (enclosed) instead of a card? Not that I object to cards, but (as you will suspect) because I want a note from you on the yellow sheet.

I am providing the next generation with lots of beautiful relics of you. My collection of them is a great pleasure  loc.02104.007_large.jpg to me, and when I "go under" some other fellow or fellows will have the advantage of them.

Yours with affectionate respect H. Buxton Forman  loc.02104.008_large.jpg  loc.02104.009_large.jpg  loc.02104.010_large.jpg

Correspondent:
Henry Buxton Forman (1842–1917), also known as Harry Buxton Forman, was most notably the biographer and editor of Percy Shelley and John Keats. On February 21, 1872, Buxton sent a copy of R. H. Horne's The Great Peace-Maker: A Sub-marine Dialogue (London, 1872) to Whitman. This poetic account of the laying of the Atlantic cable has a foreword written by Forman. After his death, Forman's reputation declined primarily because, in 1934, booksellers Graham Pollard and John Carter published An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets, which exposed Forman as a forger of many first "private" editions of poetry.


Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | 328 Mickle Street | Camden | New Jersey | United States of America. It is postmarked: ST. JOHNS WOOD | A 1 | OC20 | 91 | N.W; B; NEW YORK | OCT | 28; G | 91; PAID | H | ALL; CAMDEN, N.J. | OCT 29 | 6 A.M. | 91 | REC'D. [back]
  • 2. See Whitman's letter to Forman from September 27, 1891. [back]
  • 3. The frontispiece for Good-Bye My Fancy is a striking profile photograph of Whitman taken by Samuel Murray for use by the sculptor William O'Donovan. Whitman called the photo "an artist's picture in the best sense." See Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Saturday, May 23, 1891. [back]
  • 4. Whitman's book Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) was his last miscellany, and it included both poetry and short prose works commenting on poetry, aging, and death, among other topics. Thirty-one poems from the book were later printed as "Good-Bye my Fancy" in Leaves of Grass (1891–1892), the last edition of Leaves of Grass published before Whitman's death in March 1892. For more information see, Donald Barlow Stauffer, "'Good-Bye my Fancy' (Second Annex) (1891)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 5. Whitman's Complete Poems & Prose (1888), a volume Whitman often referred to as the "big book," was published by the poet himself—in an arrangement with publisher David McKay, who allowed Whitman to use the plates for both Leaves of Grass and Specimen Days—in December 1888. With the help of Horace Traubel, Whitman made the presswork and binding decisions for the volume. Frederick Oldach bound the book, which included a profile photo of the poet on the title page. For more information on the book, see Ed Folsom, Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman: A Catalog and Commentary (University of Iowa: Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, 2005). [back]
  • 6. Whitman's book Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) was his last miscellany, and it included both poetry and short prose works commenting on poetry, aging, and death, among other topics. Thirty-one poems from the book were later printed as "Good-Bye my Fancy" in Leaves of Grass (1891–1892), the last edition of Leaves of Grass published before Whitman's death in March 1892. For more information see, Donald Barlow Stauffer, "'Good-Bye my Fancy' (Second Annex) (1891)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 7. Whitman recited his poem "As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free" (later "Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood") at the Dartmouth commencement on June 26, 1872. The poem was first published in the the June 26, 1872, issue of the New York Herald. It was then published with seven other poems in a pamphlet, also titled As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free (1872). It was later included as a supplement bound into Two Rivulets (1876). Later, Whitman changed the title to "Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood," added a new opening stanza, made additional revisions, and incorporated the poem into Leaves of Grass (1881–82). [back]
  • 8. The naturalist John Burroughs (1837–1921) met Walt Whitman on the streets of Washington, D. C., in 1864. After returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a lifelong correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman. However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged, curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting the Universe (1924). For more on Burroughs, see Carmine Sarracino "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). It is uncertain which of Burroughs's works that Forman is referring to here. [back]
  • 9. Whitman's Democratic Vistas was first published in 1871 in New York by J.S. Redfield. The volume was an eighty-four-page pamphlet based on three essays, "Democracy," "Personalism," and "Orbic Literature," all of which Whitman intended to publish in the Galaxy magazine. Only "Democracy" and "Personalism" appeared in the magazine. For more information on Democratic Vistas, see Arthur Wrobel, "Democratic Vistas [1871]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 10. Grashalme, the first book-length German translation of Whitman's poetry, was published in 1889, translated by Thomas William Hazen Rolleston and Karl Knortz. [back]
  • 11. The 1891–1892 Leaves of Grass was copyrighted in 1891 and published by Phildelphia publisher David McKay in 1892. This volume, often referred to as the "deathbed" edition, reprints, with minor revisions, the 1881 text from the plates of Boston publisher James R. Osgood. Whitman also includes his two annexes in the book. The first annex, called "Sands at Seventy," consisted of sixty-five poems that had originally appeared in November Boughs (1888); while the second, "Good-Bye my Fancy," was a collection of thirty-one short poems taken from the gathering of prose and poetry published under that title by McKay in 1891, along with a prose "Preface Note to 2d Annex." Whitman concluded the 1891–92 volume with his prose essay "A Backward Glance o'er Travel'd Roads," which had originally appeared in November Boughs. For more information on this volume of Leaves, see R.W. French, "Leaves of Grass, 1891–1892, Deathbed Edition," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 12. Written to commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal in November 1869, "Passage to India" was, according to Walt Whitman's April 22, 1870, letter to Moncure D. Conway, the poet's attempt to "celebrate in my own way, the modern engineering masterpieces . . . the great modern material practical energy & works." The poem appeared first in 1871 in a separate publication containing the title poem, some new poems, and several poems previously published in Leaves of Grass. "Passage to India" was subsequently included in a 120-page supplement to the fifth edition of Leaves of Grass in 1871. For more information, see John B. Mason, "'Passage to India' (1871)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
  • 13. "After All, Not to Create Only," which Whitman sometimes referred to as his "American Institute piece," was presented before the American Institute on September 7, 1871. Roberts Brothers of Boston later published it; Whitman had written to them about the poem on September 17, 1871. This was the only Whitman poem published by the Roberts Brothers. The poem was later retitled "Song of the Exposition" to capitalize upon the formal opening of the Philadelphia Exposition on May 10, 1876. Walt Whitman sent the poem to various newspapers, among them the Herald and the Tribune. [back]
  • 14. Whitman had been thinking of printing a select group of photos on uniform cards and arranging them in a handsome envelope or album; he even wrote up instructions to a printer specifying a run of 200 copies, but the project was never completed. Forman here is referring to a much smaller edition of six portraits in an envelope tied with a ribbon, which appeared in 1889. [back]
  • 15. 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]
  • 16. Buxton Forman may be referring here to Whitman's letter to Dr. John Johnston dated June 1, 1891, in which Whitman describes the events of his birthday on May 31, 1891. [back]
  • 17. 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). [back]
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