James W. Wallace to Walt Whitman, 26 June 1891

 loc_vm.01249.jpg Anderton, near Chorley. Lancashire, England1 26. June 1891 My dearest friend,

Yesterday morning I received your kind postcard of the 16th inst., & in the afternoon Johnston2 received one dated the 12th.3

I am very sorry if a phrase of ours has led you to suppose that any of your letters or p.c.s have not been delivered. I think we have received them all,—& usually very promptly, though occasionally there is a curious delay like the one mentioned above.

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It is a constant wonder to us that you should write so often as you do. I feel sometimes that we are somehow guilty in taxing you so much. For it pains me to think of the effort it must cost you at times in your weakness & suffering. But, oh, how precious your messages are!—even less for their news of you (welcomed as that is) than for the wonderful loving-kindness that inspires them, & the indomitable will & serene good cheer they reveal.

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I wish that our letters were a better return. But after the day's work, & amid other calls, it is not easy to write as one would like. But Johnston & I have determined to let no mail go henceforward (if we can help it) without some reminder of our constant loving thoughts & wishes.

I am glad to note from both p.c.s that you were fairly well "considering," & that you were standing the oppressive heat pretty well. But I long to hear some better news—of some gain  loc_vm.01252.jpg & of your getting out more into the open air.

We look forward to the July number of Lippincotts4 & will get copies as soon as it appears.

We have had close sultry weather for 2 or 3 days with rain & thunder storms in the evenings. Tonight, however, is pretty fair, with only occasional very slight showers. As I write the dusk is closing in, & a lark is singing out in the field opposite my window. I cannot write any more tonight.—I send  loc_vm.01253.jpg love to Traubel,5 Warry6 & Mrs Davis.7

With supreme love & best wishes to you Yours affectionately J.W. Wallace  loc_vm.01254.jpg  loc_vm.01247.jpg  loc_vm.01248.jpg

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Notes

• 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman, | 328, Mickle St | Camden | New Jersey. | U.S. America. It is postmarked: BOLTON | 40 | JU27 | 91; 92; BOLTON | 40; 92; NEW YORK | JUL | 6; A | 91; Paid | B; CAMDEN, NJ. | JUL | 6 | 6 AM | 1891 | REC'D. [back]
• 2. 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]
• 3. See Whitman's postal cards to Wallace of June 16, 1891, and to Johnston of June 12, 1891. [back]
• 4. Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, edited from 1886 to 1894 by Joseph Marshall Stoddart, published "Walt Whitman's Last" (a brief note on his last miscellany Good-Bye My Fancy [1891]) and Horace Traubel's "Walt Whitman's Birthday: May 31, 1891" in the August 1891 issue of the magazine. [back]
• 5. 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]
• 6. 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]
• 7. 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]