Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 14 April 1889
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Superintendent's Office.
Asylum for the Insane
London.
Ontario London, Ont., 14 April 1889
I have been as busy as a nailer all day (if it is Sunday)1—just going out for a drive and write this line to take with me and post. We have had a glorious day—bright and warm—There is nothing to tell you except that we are all well and the asylum and its affairs are quiet and prosperous. I trust you are something easier by this time. I had a long cheery letter from Mrs. Gosling2 (do you recollect her in '80 when you were at the asylum? She is a great friend of yours) from Birmingham, England where she is living now with her husband & little girl.
In haste Love to you R M Bucke
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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. In 1889, April 14th fell on a Sunday, and Bucke is likely referencing a popular expression. [back]
- 2. The name of Mrs. Gosling is written in Whitman's Commonplace-Book, as are those of several other residents of London, Ontario. This entry is not dated, but follows that for June 19, 1880 and precedes the entry for July 1880 (The Commonplace-Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [back]