Camden1
May 24 '88
Your two letters rec'd—thanks—things physical somewhat less maleficent
than when I last mentioned—the worst is this iron-bound
indigestion—McKay2 has just been over to see
me—nothing particularly new—he wants an extension of the contract five
years more to publish L of G. and Spec. D.3—I told
him I would think it over—is Rhys4 with you?5—the very worst spell of weather here—dull
dark drizzling & raw—two days now—I have Donnelly's6 book—have
been looking over it—havn't tackled the cipher—
W W
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 addresed:
Dr R M Bucke | Asylum | London | Ontario | Canada. It is postmarked: (?) | May
24 | 430 (?) | 88. [back]
- 2. David McKay (1860–1918) took
over Philadelphia-based publisher Rees Welsh's bookselling and publishing
businesses in 1881–82. McKay and Rees Welsh published the 1881 edition of
Leaves of Grass after opposition from the Boston
District Attorney prompted James R. Osgood & Company of Boston, the original publisher,
to withdraw. McKay also went on to publish Specimen Days &
Collect, November Boughs, Gems
from Walt Whitman, Complete Prose Works,
and the final Leaves of Grass, the so-called deathbed edition. For
more information about McKay, see Joel Myerson, "McKay, David (1860–1918)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. Whitman's Commonplace Book added a few details: "He will sell me
the plates of Spec: Days for $150—he gives consent to my using the
plates of Spec. Days for my complete works
edition—500 or 600 copies." (Whitman's Commonplace Book; Charles E.
Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.) [back]
- 4. Ernest Percival Rhys
(1859–1946) was a British author and editor; he founded the Everyman's
Library series of inexpensive reprintings of popular works. He included a volume
of Whitman's poems in the Canterbury Poets series and two volumes of Whitman's
prose in the Camelot series for Walter Scott publishers. For more information
about Rhys, see Joel Myerson, "Rhys, Ernest Percival (1859–1946)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. When Rhys wrote to
Whitman from New York on May 21, 1888, he was
about to leave for Canada (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman
in Camden, Saturday, June 9, 1888). Rhys was in Camden on May 27 (Whitman's
Commonplace Book; Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman,
1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.), and on May 30 he sent birthday greetings and a poem from
New York (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, July 24, 1888). He wrote again on June 7, just before he sailed to England (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, July 24, 1888). In New York, Rhys had been hobnobbing with
Stedman and Colonel Ingersoll. [back]
- 6. Ignatius Loyola Donnelly
(1831–1901) was a politician and writer, well known for his notions of
Atlantis as an antediluvian civilization and for his belief that Shakespeare's
plays had been written by Francis Bacon, an idea he argued in his book The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon's Cipher in Shakespeare's
Plays, published in 1888. [back]