I have your good letter of 25 & 26 inst.2 I note all you say about my "W.W" Your
wishes will be religiously respected I did think of considerable changes (for I am
certain the book will sell by & by) but was never set
on them and less so lately. Yes, I shall leave it stand as it is and add under a
later date what else I may have to say. I am glad Dr. Osler3 has
been to see you again, I do not think the pain you speak of means anything serious,
though no doubt it is annoying—I hope it is gone by now. Have to go to loc_es.00397.jpg go to the city in a few
minutes shall take this in and post it some men (capitalists) coming this
afternoon to see the meter4 shall tell you tomorrow whether we succeed in doing any
business with them. We are moving slow just now—feeling our way—we hope
to be in a positon soon to launch out
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).