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Superintendent's Office.
Asylum
for the Insane
London.
Ontario
London, Ont.,1
20 Sept 1889
Your card of 18th2 reached me at
4 this P.M. The "Liberty" with Horace's3 O'C.4 piece5 came at 10 this morning—they are both
welcome—With us too it is getting like fall—a fire has looked and felt
comfortable the last 3 days. No word lately from Willy Gurd,6 do
not look for him here for some weeks yet. My annual report is on again, shall make it short this year (between you & me—I am
not saying any thing about this but thinking of it a good
deal—I rather hope this may be my last—if we are not entirely deceived
about the meter I shall have other—pleasanter and more profitable—work
to do in the immediate future). I note what you say about not feeling very well,7 I loc_es.00636.jpg fear you do not—still, on the whole, you are sticking it
out well and have even gained quite a bit in the last 9 months—I have great
hopes that you may have some comfort in your life yet—and beyond—beyond?
yes, we shall have good times yet—the old times were good but the new times
shall be better.
I wish I could see you—hope I shall before a very great while—meantime
that last photo'8 is almost equal to the real article
itself
Love to you
R M Bucke
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loc_es.00634.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 | SP 21 | 89 | Canada; Camden, N.J. | Sep | 22 | 6 AM | 1889 |
Rec'd; NY | [illegible] | 8. [back]
- 2. See Whitman's September 18, 1889, postal card to Bucke. [back]
- 3. Horace L. Traubel (1858–1919)
was an American essayist, poet, and magazine publisher. He is best remembered as
the literary executor, biographer, and self-fashioned "spirit child" of Walt
Whitman. During the late 1880s and until Whitman's death in 1892, Traubel visited
the poet virtually every day and took thorough notes of their conversations,
which he later transcribed and published in three large volumes entitled With Walt Whitman in Camden (1906, 1908, & 1914).
After his death, Traubel left behind enough manuscripts for six more volumes of
the series, the final two of which were published in 1996. For more on Traubel,
see Ed Folsom, "Traubel, Horace L. [1858–1919]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 4. William Douglas O'Connor
(1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet
The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866.
For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. Traubel's article,
"W.D. O'Connor of Massachusetts," appeared in Liberty on
September 7,1889. [back]
- 6. William John Gurd (1845–1903)
was Richard Maurice Bucke's brother-in-law, with whom he was designing a gas and
fluid meter to be patented in Canada and sold in England. Bucke believed the
meter would be worth "millions of dollars," while Whitman remained skeptical,
sometimes to Bucke's annoyance. In a March 18,
1888, letter to William D. O'Connor, Whitman wrote, "The practical
outset of the meter enterprise collapsed at the last moment for the want of
capital investors." For additional information, see Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, March 17, 1889, Monday, March 18, 1889, Friday, March 22, 1889, and Wednesday, April 3, 1889. [back]
- 7. See Whitman's September 18, 1889, letter to Bucke. [back]
- 8. Bucke is referring to this
photograph, which was taken by Frederick Gutekunst in Philadelphia in
1889. [back]