Walt Whitman to Richard Maurice Bucke, 2 July 1888
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Camden
Monday afternoon 1½
July 2 '88
Thanks for your letter this morn'g—the "Sands"1 is intended (such as it is) for 20 pp. of "Annex" to follow L of G. consecutively paged—I have duplicate sets of them to be properly paged for the pp. for the "Annex"—I am probably no worse, but am to day certainly no better or strongly—the bowel movement is just right (a great favorable point daily or every other daily)—my eye sight goes badly—I enclose you Pearsall Smith's note2 wh' is favorable & you will want to know—the remains cool & pleasant to-day—My sister Lou3 is here to-day. My dinner is just here & I relish it—
W W
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Steamship Aller
June 20th. 1888.
My dear Friend —
It was with much regret that we felt compelled to leave you in your sickness last
week. We hold you in affectionate remembrance as we pass over the waters to England
where once we hoped to have had your company. We beg that you will send us from 
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you feel able accounts of your health and of all that nearly concerns you concerns
us also who love you.
Our passage across the whole way has been nearly as smooth as a duck pond, and my health has been very much benefitted by it.
I bear your messages of love and remembrance to your many friends in 
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without my privileges of personal fellowship with you, honour and love you. I hope
that the knowledge of this may often cheer and console you in hours of pain and
weariness. Alys,4 my faithful secretary, joins me in the
expression of the hearty affection with which I am always
Correspondent:
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).
Notes
- 1. Whitman is referring to "Sands at Seventy," a group of late poems that he had included in November Boughs (1888) and then included as an "annex" to Leaves of Grass starting with the 1889 printing of the book. [back]
- 2. For an additional note on this letter, see Whitman's letter to Mary Smith Costelloe of June 26, 1888. [back]
- 3. Louisa Orr Haslam Whitman (1842–1892), called "Loo" or "Lou," married Whitman's brother George Whitman on April 14, 1871. Their son, Walter Orr Whitman, was born in 1875 but died the following year. A second son was stillborn. Whitman lived in Camden, New Jersey, with George and Louisa from 1873 until 1884, when George and Louisa moved to a farm outside of Camden and Whitman decided to stay in the city. Louisa and Whitman had a warm relationship during the poet's final decades. For more, see Karen Wolfe, "Whitman, Louisa Orr Haslam (Mrs. George) (1842–1892)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 4. Alys Smith (1867–1951) was a daughter of Robert Pearsall Smith and the sister of Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe. She eventually married the philosopher Bertrand Russell. [back]