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Dr. John Johnston to Walt Whitman, 28 November 1891

About This Item

  • Title: Dr. John Johnston to Walt Whitman, 28 November 1891
  • Date: November 28, 1891
  • Creator(s): Dr. John Johnston
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.02533
  • 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: Cristin Noonan Stephanie Blalock Alex Ashland Tara Ballard Amanda J. Axley
  • Cite this page: Johnston, Dr. John. "Dr. John Johnston to Walt Whitman, 28 November 1891." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 11 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.02533.xml (TEI)
 loc.02533.003_large.jpg 54 Manchester Road, Bolton. England1 Novr 28th 1891. My Dear Old Friend,

Just a few lines to send you my love & [torn-away] say "How do" to you a cross the deep Atlantic

Things are going on with us here much as usual & the days succeed each other in all too rapid succession, each bringing its duties wh: have got to be done & wh: are done in some loc.02533.004_large.jpg fa[cut away] then & with these I have been kept rather busy of late

I send you a Bolton Chronicle2 containing an account of a fatal accident to one of our firemen, Joe Wilkinson,3 who was buried alive beneath bags of cotton waste & debris of a building wh. collapsed after a fire. As soon as his mates realised that Joe was missing they set to & worked like veritable heroes to extricate their poor friend. Never shall I forget the scene—the gleam of the torches flaring upon the brass accountrements & helmets of the blue coated firemen working in that death trap loc.02533.005_large.jpg with its suffocating smoke for the cotton was still smouldering & every now & again rushing out gasping for fresh air, their faces blackened & grimy streaked with perspiration—the superintendant quietly giving his orders—Kind for moving about in the semidarkness with jugfuls of steaming hot coffee wh: [cut away] thoughtful soul had kindly sent—the digging, the pulling & the wrenching [cut away] get at poor Joe—the discovery of his helmet still on his head the rapid clearing of his face—the cry of "Now Doctor here he is! Is he dead?"—the rapid  loc.02533.006_large.jpgexamination & encouragement to go on & get his chest freed so that artificial respiration could be tried—the renewed efforts—the hush while I was down in that pit of death performing artificial respiration (for his feet were still immovably fixed by [cut away] timber & resisted the united efforts of six men to dislodge them—the moan of disappointmenkt when the opinion was given that re-animation was impossible &c &c all made up a scene of weirdness & tragic horror I shall never forget.

 loc.02533.007_large.jpg

A letter from JWW4 says that he has not been so well this week—got a bad cold while working or rather superintending some work on a canal.

I sincerely trust that things are well with you

R.K.G5 just called & sends his love as does

Yours affectly J Johnston  loc.02533.008_large.jpg  loc.02533.001_large.jpg  loc_tb.00048.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 | NO 26 | 91 | [illegible] | All; [illegible] | 91; Camden, N.J. | Dec 7 | 6 AM | 91 | Rec'd. [back]
  • 2. The Bolton Chronicle was a local newspaper founded in 1824 and published weekly in Bolton, Lancashire, England, until 1917. [back]
  • 3. As yet, we have no additional information about Bolton fireman Joe Wilkinson, beyond the details that Johnston provides in this letter. [back]
  • 4. 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]
  • 5. Richard Greenhalgh, a bank clerk and one of Whitman's Bolton admirers, frequently hosted annual celebrations of the poet's birthday. In his March 9, 1892, letter to Traubel, Greenhalgh wrote that "Walt has taught me 'the glory of my daily life and trade.' In all the departments of my life Walt entered with his loving personality & I am never alone" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, March 20, 1892). James Wallace described Greenhalgh as "undoubtedly a rich, royal, plain fellow, not given to ornate word or act" (Sunday, September 27, 1891). For more on Greenhalgh, see Paul Salveson, "Loving Comrades: Lancashire's Links to Walt Whitman," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 14.2 (1996), 57–84. [back]
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