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Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 12 September 1888

About This Item

  • Title: Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 12 September 1888
  • Date: September 12, 1888
  • Creator(s): Richard Maurice Bucke
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.07238
  • 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: Jeannette Schollaert Ian Faith Caterina Bernardini Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Bucke, Richard Maurice. "Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 12 September 1888." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 10 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.07238.xml (TEI)
 loc_es.00356.jpg Superintendent's Office.1 
 ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE 
 LONDON. 
  ONTARIO 
 London, Ont.,12 Sept 1888

Still keeps lovely weather here—in fact more and more pleasant if possible. I go this afternoon to Sarnia to attend (tomorrow morning) the wedding of Miss Pardee2 & Fred. Kittermaster3—the latter a nephew of Mrs. Buckes'.4 I shall return here noon friday & probably write you that evening. Everything quiet here including the meter5 but we expect to be ready to make another step in the matter next week. I do not hear from Gilchrist6—what  loc_es.00357.jpg is he doing? I suppose you see a good deal of him?

Always affectionately yours RM Bucke  loc_es.00354.jpg See notes Sept 14, 1888  loc_es.00355.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. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | 328 Mickle Street | Camden | New Jersey | U.S.A. It is postmarked: LONDON | PM | SP 12 | 88 | CANADA; CAMDEN, N.J. | SEP | 14 | 6AM | 1888 | REC'D. [back]
  • 2. Louisa Helen Pardee (1865–1950) was the daughter of Timothy Blair Pardee (1830–1889), a Canadian lawyer and politician. [back]
  • 3. Frederick William Kittermaster (?–1904) was a lawyer in Sarnia, Ontario; he married Louisa Helen Pardee (1865–1950), the daughter of the Canadian lawyer and politician Timothy Blair Pardee, in 1888. [back]
  • 4. Jessie Maria Gurd Bucke (1839–1926) grew up in Mooretown, Upper Canada. She was the daughter of William Gurd, an army officer from Ireland. Gurd married Richard Maurice Bucke in 1865. The couple had eight children. [back]
  • 5. Bucke and his brother-in-law William John Gurd were designing a gas and fluid meter to be patented in Canada and sold in England. [back]
  • 6. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist (1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro, "Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
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