James W. Wallace to Walt Whitman, 13 September 1891

 loc_vm.00897_large.jpg INSANE ASYLUM1 LONDON ONTARIO 13th Sept 18912 My dear, dear friend

It is now Sunday evening—8-15—Dr Bucke3 & I have recently finished supper, & I think I will write you a few lines.

A beautiful day, clear, with warm sunshine. This morning I attended chapel—tallying in my own experience your "Sunday with the Insane"4—sat afterwards for an hour and a half on a bench in the grounds here scribbling—the sun shining warmly, crickets shrilling, the lawn, flower beds & trees (some changing colour) beautiful in the sunshine.—In the afternoon  loc_vm.00898_large.jpg I attended the Catholic service—At 5 oclock Dr took me for a drive to town & round the country near. Enjoyed it immensely. Quite struck by the general air of comfort & prosperity—the neat houses with grounds or garden attached, the elbow room & air space enjoyed by each—the total absence of the overcrowding, smoke, dirt, & foul air with which I am familiar. The country—fertile & beautiful—has not the mellow domesticated character of English landscape, but retains a suspicion of wildness & unreclaimed Nature still. But, at every turn, it has its own changeful beauty, & always suggests freedom, expansion, healthful conditions, & room for growth.

A beautiful & typical September evening, mellow & golden, but with a cool air & a steely zenith that made it bracing & stimulating. The moon shining down added to its beauty.

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I shall not soon forget our ride, & our talks of you.—I find, as I expected to find, that Dr Bucke grows upon me with further knowledge of him & is a worthy friend of yours.—

I had quite a talk yesterday afternoon with Mrs Bucke5—about the Dr & about your visit here 11 years ago. It seems that I occupy your room!6 Am not I a proud man? It gives an additional interest to the view from my window to know that you used to admire it.

I write this in the Library—Dr B sitting to the right reading—Pardee7 on the other side of the table. Dr shewed me a short time ago two books on Egypt that you used to read.

By the way, Mrs Bucke told me a short time ago that Revd Richardson8 is coming here on Tuesday, & I hope to get him to talk a little about you.—

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This afternoon I read an article on Carlyle9 by Thoreau,10 & one sentence hit me rather hard. T. said that many people went to see Carlyle who were not worthy to be seen by him. "That's me" In writing to you, & in coming to see you, I feel that I am not worthy of so great & dear a privilege. But it is said that "love is a present for a mighty King,"11 & I suppose it is for a mighty poet too. And you have my love for ever, & more so as I know you better. And behind mine is the love of fellows who are affectionate & true & good. Love & honour to you from us all.

My letters from home contain such sentences as these. "If you dare, give Walt's hand a grip for my wife12 & me" (Wentworth Dixon.13) "I would very much like you to give him my love," (R K Greenhalgh14). "Please give my love & best wishes to Walt Whitman" (W.A. Ferguson15)

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I have had 2 or 3 drives with Dr B. round the extensive grounds here.—Acres & acres of vegetables & fruits in first rate condition. Everything excellently arranged & carried out.

Have spent some time too in his office—looking over his collection of books &c, & his series of photos of you. All intensely interesting to me—too interesting indeed, for it affects my sleep.

It is a great & wonderful privilege to me to be here in many ways, & I am thankful to Dr Bucke for his kindness & to God for his mercy.—

But I won't write any more now. With love to you, which only grows more tender, & with love to Mrs Davis16 & Warry,17 & to Traubel.18

J.W. Wallace  loc_vm.00902_large.jpg  loc_vm.00895_large.jpg see notes Sept 21 1891  loc_vm.00896_large.jpg

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Notes

• 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman, | 328, Mickle St | Camden | New Jersey | U.S. It is postmarked: LONDON | AM | SP 14 | 91 | CANADA; CAMDEN, N.J. | SEP15 | 4PM | 91 | REC'D. [back]
• 2. In September 1891, Wallace traveled to the United States, arriving at Philadelphia on September 8, 1891 (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, September 8, 1891). Wallace's arrival was shortly preceded by that of the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke, who had recently returned from two months of travel in Europe, where he had spent time with Johnston, Wallace, and the Bolton College group of English Whitman admirers. Both Bucke and Wallace visited Whitman in Camden, and, after spending a few days with the poet, Wallace returned with Bucke to London, Ontario, Canada, where he met Bucke's family and friends. Wallace's account of his time with Whitman was published—along with the Bolton physician John Johnston's account of his own visit with the poet in the summer of 1890—in their memoir, Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–1891 by Two Lancashire Friends (London: Allen and Unwin, 1917). [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]
• 4. Wallace is referring to Whitman's essay "Sunday with the Insane" from Specimen Days and Collect, which details a church service Whitman attended during his time visiting Dr. Bucke's Asylum for the Insane in London, Ontario, Canada, in 1880. The first issue of Specimen Days was published by the Philadelphia firm of Rees Welsh and Company in 1882, and the second issue by David McKay. Many of the autobiographical notes, sketches, and essays from the volume that focus on the poet's life during and beyond the Civil War had been previously published in periodicals or in Memoranda During the War (1875–1876). For more information on Specimen Days, see George Hutchinson and David Drews "Specimen Days [1882]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
• 5. Jessie Maria Gurd Bucke (1839–1926) grew up in Mooretown, Upper Canada. She was the daughter of William Gurd, an army officer from Ireland. Gurd married Richard Maurice Bucke in 1865. The couple had eight children. [back]
• 6. From June 3 to September 29, 1880, Bucke traveled with Whitman from the poet's home in Camden to Bucke's residence near London, Ontario, Canada. After spending the summer on the grounds of the Asylum for the Insane, the two went on an extended trip that included journeying by railroad to Toronto and taking a steamship on Lake Ontario before going to Chicoutimi, Quebec, on the Saguenay River. On the return journey, Bucke traveled with Whitman as far as Niagara, at which point the poet retuned to New Jersey on his own. [back]
• 7. Timothy Blair Pardee (1830–1889) was a Canadian lawyer and politician, member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontaria, Canada, and Minister of the Crown. Pardee appointed Richard Maurice Bucke, with whom he was a close friend, as the Superintendent of the Asylum for the Insane in Hamilton at its founding in 1876, and then the next year as Superintendent of the Asylum for the Insane in London. For more on Pardee, see H. V. Nelles, "Pardee, Timothy Blair," Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol. 11 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982). [back]
• 8. Reverend George L. Richardson (b. 1834) was a London, Ontario, Methodist minister, who in 1881, when Whitman visited London, had talked with the poet about the role of religion and science in Leaves of Grass and about his views of the orator and agnostic Robert Ingersoll. Bucke describes these conversations in his biography of the poet (Walt Whitman [Philadelphia, PA: David McKay, 1883], 67). [back]
• 9. Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, lecturer, and philosopher. For more on Carlyle, see John D. Rosenberg, Carlyle and the Burden of History (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1985). [back]
• 10. Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an American author, poet, and abolitionist best known for writing Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854) and Civil Disobedience (1849). He was a contemporary of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman. For more on Whitman's relationship with Thoreau, see Susan L. Roberson, "Thoreau, Henry David [1817–1862]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
• 11. Wallace is referencing the poem "The Church-Porch" by George Herbert (1593–1633), a poet and priest of the Church of England. Herbert writes "Scorn no man's love, though of a mean degree; / Love is a present for a mighty king" (The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations [London: Pickering, 1835], 13). [back]
• 12. Mira (sometimes spelled "Myra") Jane Gregory Gerrad (1857–1931) married Wentworth Dixon in 1878. The couple were the parents of at least four children: Myra Dixon, Nora Dixon, Wentworth Dixon, and Ellen Dixon. [back]
• 13. Wentworth Dixon (1855–1928) was a lawyer's clerk and a member of the "Bolton College" of Whitman admirers. He was also affiliated with the Labour Church, an organization whose socialist politics and working-class ideals were often informed by Whitman's work. Dixon communicated directly with Whitman only a few times, but we can see in his letters a profound sense of care for the poet's failing health, as well as genuine gratitude for Whitman's continued correspondence with the "Eagle Street College." See Dixon's letters to Whitman of June 13, 1891 and February 24, 1892. For more on Dixon and Whitman's Bolton disciples, see Paul Salveson, "Loving Comrades: Lancashire's Links to Walt Whitman," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 14.2 (1996), 57–84. [back]
• 14. 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]
• 15. Little is known about W. A. Ferguson, who was affiliated with the Little Hulton branch of the Bank of Bolton and was a member of the Bolton College group of admirers of Whitman in Bolton, Lancashire, England. [back]
• 16. Mary Oakes Davis (1837 or 1838–1908) was Whitman's housekeeper. For more, see Carol J. Singley, "Davis, Mary Oakes (1837 or 1838–1908)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
• 17. 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]
• 18. 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]