James W. Wallace to Walt Whitman, 23 September 1891

 loc_vm.00953_large.jpg London,1 Ontario, Canada 23 Sep. 18912 Dear Walt,

Thank you for the two papers received today—containing many items of interest, the Herbert Spencer3 interviews included. And thank you still more for the kind, constant thought which prompts you to send them.

Another day of midsummer warmth & beauty—It seems a land of perpetual summer, & I begin to fear that when I get back to England—especially during our November fogs—I shall be dissatisfied & look back on my Canadian experiences with envy.

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I think, however, that my main feeling will be gratitude that my trip was so fortunate in all its circumstances. And, indeed, I am deeply thankful that I am so blessed.

This morning I went with Dr Bucke4 through the North Bldg. (Refractory Wards.) Patients as a rule more or less happy (not many melancholic) & well looked after. But what thoughts, feelings, & problems they rouse!—I asked Dr. Beemer5 about your visits,6 & though I did not learn much, what he did tell me was characteristic.

I spent the rest of the morning in looking over the papers loc_vm.00955_large.jpg you sent, & in copying some of the letters to Pete Doyle7 that the doctor has. These have quite a fascination to me, in the side lights they throw on your most kind & loving soul. God bless you, & our love to you.

After dinner I went to the Fair along with the children & Mrs Beemer's8 sister.9 Many thousands of people there—from the entire province I think.—The general average very good—fine looking people as a whole, well–behaved, & comfortably prosperous—English looking—but with a difference hard to define.

Since tea I have been across to office for a letter from our loyal & indefatigable friend Traubel.10 Lovely glowing western sky.

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I hope that this long spell of beautiful weather will prove beneficial to you (as indeed it must do) & I am heartily relieved & glad that the reports so far have been so favourable. Health, & immunity from pain to you, & serenest joys.

Please give my love to Mrs Davis11 & Warry.12 With best love to you always

Yours affectionately J.W. Wallace

P.S. A busy week at the Asylum. Shoals of visitors to the Fair come on to see the Asylum—but not so many (says Dr B) as in past years.

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Notes

• 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman, | 328, Mickle St | Camden | New Jersey. It is postmarked: London | SP 24 | 91 | CANADA; Camden N.J. | Sep 26 | 4PM | 91 | REC'D. [back]
• 2. When Wallace wrote this letter, he was visiting the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke at Bucke's home in London, Ontario, Canada. Wallace had traveled to the United States from Bolton, England, landing at Philadelphia on September 8, 1891 (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, September 8, 1891). After spending a few days with Whitman, Wallace traveled with Bucke to Canada, where he met Bucke's family and friends. Wallace's accounts of his travels were later published with the Bolton physcian John Johnston's account of his own visit with the poet in the summer of 1890 in their book Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–91 (London, England: G. Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1917). [back]
• 3. Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) was an English philosopher whose work on evolution (both biological and social) preceded Charles Darwin. Spencer most notably introduced the idea of "survival of the fittest." [back]
• 4. 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]
• 5. Dr. Nelson Henry (N. H.) Beemer (ca. 1854–1934) was in charge of the "Refractory Building" at Bucke's asylum and served as his first assistant physician. Whitman met Beemer during his visit there in the summer of 1880. See James H. Coyne, Richard Maurice Bucke: A Sketch (Toronto: Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1906), 52. [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. Peter Doyle (1843–1907) was one of Walt Whitman's closest comrades and lovers, and their friendship spanned nearly thirty years. The two met in 1865 when the twenty-one-year-old Doyle was a conductor in the horsecar where the forty-five-year-old Whitman was a passenger. Despite his status as a veteran of the Confederate Army, Doyle's uneducated, youthful nature appealed to Whitman. Although Whitman's stroke in 1873 and subsequent move from Washington to Camden limited the time the two could spend together, their relationship rekindled in the mid-1880s after Doyle moved to Philadelphia and visited nearby Camden frequently. After Whitman's death, Doyle permitted Richard Maurice Bucke to publish the letters Whitman had sent him. For more on Doyle and his relationship with Whitman, see Martin G. Murray, "Doyle, Peter," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
• 8. Mary Anne Wilcox Laing Beemer (1862–1927) was the daughter of the Scottish merchant Alexander Laing and his wife Anne Laing. She grew up in Ontario, Canada, and married Dr. Nelson Henry Beemer in 1879. The couple were the parents of at least two children. [back]
• 9. Emily Laing (ca. 1869–1954) was the sister of Mary Anne Laing Wilcox Beemer (1862–1927). Laing lived in Ontario with her mother, and later worked as a housekeeper. [back]
• 10. 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]
• 11. 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]
• 12. 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]