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Dr. John Johnston to Walt Whitman, 30 May 1891

About This Item

  • Title: Dr. John Johnston to Walt Whitman, 30 May 1891
  • Date: May 30, 1891
  • Creator(s): Dr. John Johnston
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.02479
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Ethan Heusser Cristin Noonan Alex Ashland Stephanie Blalock Amanda J. Axley
  • Cite this page: Johnston, Dr. John. "Dr. John Johnston to Walt Whitman, 30 May 1891." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 03 May 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.02479.xml (TEI)
 loc.02479.003_large.jpg 54 Manchester Road Bolton England1 May 30th 1891. My Dear Walt Whitman,

Our best & warmest thanks to you for your kindness in sending us the advance copy of "Good Bye My Fancy,"2 which reached us by last mail!

As I was then overwhelmed with work I took the book at once to Wallace3 & he has had it ever since until today & tho' I am still without opportunity for  loc.02479.004_large.jpg reading it—I have had a fearfully busy week—but I could not let the mail go without sending you my personal thanks for your generous gift which I shall prize very highly indeed & take time to absorb & assimilate.

Meanwhile I take this opportunity of Congratulating you upon the successful accomplishment of your life task—finis coronat opus4—& the Completion of your "Carte-de-viste to posterity."5 It must be a great satisfaction to you  loc.02479.005_large.jpg to feel that you have finished your work, & to us it is matter for congratulation & gratitude that you have been permitted to do so.

On this, the eve of your 72nd birthday, my thoughts have been much with you, & I am longing to hear some news of you & how you are keeping. Better, I sincerely hope & trust, my good kind old friend.

I am looking forward to spending a pleasant afternoon tomorrow (Sunday 31st) with Wallace & a few of  loc.02479.006_large.jpg the friends. It will be a sacred & blessed day with us, full of tender & loving thoughts of you

I send you a copy of the Annandale Observer containing some verses suggested by my recent visit to my native place—

Now as time presses I must close, with kindest regards to all your household & with my heart's best love to you

Yours affectionately J. Johnston  loc.02480.001_large.jpg see notes July 8 1891  loc.02480.002_large.jpg

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 | 56 | MY 30 | 91; Camden, N.J. | Jun | 7 | 4 PM | 1891 | Rec'd.; Paid | B | All; [illegible] York | Jun | 6. [back]
  • 2. 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]
  • 3. James William Wallace (1853–1926), of Bolton, England, was an architect and great admirer of Whitman. Wallace, along with Dr. John Johnston (1852–1927), a physician in Bolton, 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 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]
  • 4. The Latin phrase "finis coronat opus" means "the end crowns the work." [back]
  • 5. Johnston is referring to a statement attributed to the French philogist and founder of Egyptology, Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832). On his death bed, when Champillion revised the proof of his "Egyptian Grammar," he called the work his "carte visite to posterity." Whitman himself refers to Champillion's words in a footnote in his essay, "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads." [back]
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