Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 3 December 1890

About This Item

Title: Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 3 December 1890
Date: December 3, 1890
Creator(s): Richard Maurice Bucke
Whitman Archive ID: loc.07131
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: Blake Bronson-Bartlett Ian Faith Marie Ernster Stephanie Blalock
Cite this page: Bucke, Richard Maurice. "Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 3 December 1890." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 11 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: loc.07131.xml (TEI)

loc_sd.00103.jpg Medical Superintendent's Office. Insane Asylum London Ontario1 3 Dec 1890

Just a line, dear Walt, to say that Horace2 gives me a very good account of your condition—says you look and seem better and are a little more cheerful—all this is good and mighty pleasant to hear.

In London, Ont. we have winter, snowed last night and sleighing today. All well and quiet, am going to town in a few minutes in my cutter first time of using it this season

Love to you RM Bucke

loc_sd.00104.jpg

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. A diagonal line has been drawn through the letter in black ink. [back]
2. 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]