loc_es.00464.jpg
Superintendent's Office.
Asylum
for the Insane
London.
Ontario.
London, Ont.,1
11 Nov 1888
If you have not already read "Jean-Francois Millet" in Sept "19th Century"2 get hold of it and read it. With a
few verbal changes, as "poet" for "painter" &c. large passages in it might be
read for yourself—Especially the last ½ page. The parallelism in the lives
of the two men (yourself & Millet) is wonderful: for instance
- 1
- Both born and brought up near the sea wh exerts a profound influence on
the mode of thought & feeling of each.
- 2
- Ms books in youth Bible & Virgil
Ws " " " " Homer & Shakespeare
- 3
- Each born of country people & always stuck to these in preference to
city & polished folk
- 4
- Each strongly affected by a wreck at sea on coast near home in
childhood
- 5
- M. left country early went to Paris
W. " " " " "
N.Y. loc_es.00465.jpg
- 6
-
loc_es.00466.jpgSensier3 speaks of M's 12 years
apprentiship
in Paris—
John Burroughs4 of W's 12 years preparation
in N.Y.
- 7
- "The true M—Le Grande Rustique—
revealed himself for the
first
time in 1850" (36 years old—
born in 1814) "in Le
Semeur—
The Sower, which was hailed
by at least one critic as
a fine and original conception"5
The true W. came out 1855 (36 years
old) 1st Ed. L. of G. which was
hailed by one critic (Emerson)6
as a
fine and original
conception
- 8
- The fate of both—constant neglect varied by fierce attacks,
relieved by the passionate faith and friendship of a few.
- 9
- "This then" (the beauty, pathos and grandeur of labor and of the common laboring many)
"was M's (W's) loc_es.00467.jpg loc_es.00468.jpg discovery, this the message he
had "to give the world. Before his time the peasant had never been held a fit
subject for art."7
- 10
- "Here is a man" said Gautier8 "who "finds poetry in the fields, who loves
the peasant"9 "In the labor of engines and
trades" (says W.) "and the labor of fields I find the developments and find
the eternal meanings."10
- 11
- "They wish to drive me into their drawing-room art" (said M.) "No, No, a peasant I was born and a peasant I will die."11 Compare
"Lines to a certain civilian"12
The list might be greatly extended.
I have your card of 8th rejoyced to hear that you still
hold your own—also that you still think well of Wilkins.13
loc_es.00469.jpg
loc_es.00470.jpgI hear from Gurd14 now
Every few days The patents are not yet in such a shape that it is safe to show the
meter but they probably will be in very few more days. I may go east inside of a
week—quite likely I may go early next week.
All well here—Weather still keeps rainy (never saw, I think, such a rainy time)
today however lovely, bright and warm enough I am going out for a little
drive—fresh air
Love to you
R M Bucke
loc_es.00471.jpg
loc_es.00462.jpg
See Notes Nov. 14 1888
loc_es.00463.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 | AM | No 12 | 88 | Canada; Camden N.J. | Nov | 13 | 1 PM |
[illegible] | Rec'd. [back]
- 2. Bucke is referring to
Julia Ady's "Jean-Francois Millet," Nineteenth Century,
No. 139 (September 1888), 419–438. [back]
- 3. Bucke is referencing
Alfred Sensier's La Vie et l'oeuvre de J.F. Millet [Life and Work of J.F. Millet] (Paris, 1881). [back]
- 4. The naturalist John Burroughs
(1837–1921) met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After
returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a decades-long
correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman.
However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged,
curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or
devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and
Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting
the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs,
see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. Bucke's quotation is a
conflation of two sentences: "He [Millet] thought of Gréville, and painted
'Le Semeur,' which, exhibited at the Salon in 1850, was hailed by at least one
critic as a fine and original conception. . . . Here [i.e. in 'Le Semeur'] the
true Millet, le Grand Rustique, revealed himself for the
first time" (Ady, p. 428). [back]
- 6. Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803–1882) was an American poet and essayist who began the
Transcendentalist movement with his 1836 essay Nature.
For more on Emerson, see Jerome Loving, "Emerson, Ralph Waldo [1809–1882]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 7. Bucke omits Ady's
qualifying national adjective: "the French peasant had never been held a fit
subject for art" (p. 429). [back]
- 8. Pierre Jules Théophile
Gautier (1811–1872) was French poet, journalist, and literary critic. He
published several collections of poetry, and a number of plays and
novels. [back]
- 9. Quite significantly,
Bucke omits the last part of the quotation from Gautier: "'Here is a man,' said
Gautier, 'who finds poetry in the fields, who loves the peasant, paints Georgics
after Virgil'" (Ady, p. 432). [back]
- 10. Bucke is quoting from
Whitman's "A Song of Occupations," ll. 2–3 (Leaves of
Grass: Comprehensive Reader's Edition. [back]
- 11. The full quotation is:
"'They wish to drive me into their drawing-room art,' he said; 'no, no, a
peasant I was born and a peasant I will die; I will say what I feel and paint
things as I see them'" (Ady, p. 433). [back]
- 12. Bucke is attempting to
draw a parallel between Millet's statement and Whitman's To a Certain
Civilian." In the poem, Whitman sets up a contrast between "[t]he
drum-corps' rattle" (l. 6) and "the civilian's peaceful and languishing rhymes"
(l. 2). As the poet of Drum-Taps, Whitman claims to "have
been born of the same as the war was born" (l .5) and to "love well the marital
dirge" (l. 6). [back]
- 13. Edward "Ned" Wilkins
(1865–1936) was one of Whitman's nurses during his Camden years; he was
sent to Camden from London, Ontario, by Dr. Richard M. Bucke, and he began
caring for Whitman on November 5, 1888. He stayed for a year before returning to
Canada to attend the Ontario Veterinary School. Wilkins graduated on March 24,
1893, and then he returned to the United States to commence his practice in
Alexandria, Indiana. For more information, see Bert A. Thompson, "Edward
Wilkins: Male Nurse to Walt Whitman," Walt Whitman Review
15 (September 1969), 194–195. [back]
- 14. 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]