Your card of 8th to hand this morning. Dr. Harkness2 came yesterday afternoon, he will make a short visit, 5 or 6 days, with me—he is well. The weather continues pleasant here not at all unpleasantly hot. There is nothing special stirring. I should like to hear that you are gaining strength—I do not hear that—how is it? Nothing back from Willy Gurd3—I still hope I may see you sometime next month but nothing certain about it
Your friend RM Bucke loc_es.00289.jpg loc_es.00286.jpg R.M. Bucke See notes Aug 12, '88 loc_es.00287.jpgCorrespondent:
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).