Camden
noon April 18 '881
All goes as well & monotonously as usual (No news is good news)—I got up late, ate my breakfast (two or three broil'd oysters, a Graham
biscuit & cup of coffee)—& here I am sitting alone in the little front room,
feeling not discomfortable particularly—I have rec'd from Morse 2 a plaster
cast bust of Elias Hicks3 wh' I have set up in the corner—like it—it is a
little larger than life proportions—you may be sure Morse is making better work
than ever—I send O'C[connor]'s4 letter to me5, just rec'd, as I
know you will wish to hear & know—also send S Ford's letter6—Also
send two little slips of a Herald bit—you keep one & send the other with
these letters to Dr. B—(Maurice, I have rec'd y'r letter of 15th)—Have
quite a good many visitors—Yesterday two young women, one from Ireland—a lady from Virginia (authoress)—Mr Quigley
(law assistant of Col. Ingersoll)7—& a young Phila. littérateur &c. &c.—Receive many
invitations & some queer letters—Spirits mainly good—Best love—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
William Sloane Kennedy and Richard
Maurice Bucke were two of Whitman's closest friends and admirers. Kennedy
(1850–1929) first met Whitman while on the staff of the Philadelphia American in 1880. He became a fierce defender of Whitman
and would go on to write a book-length study of the poet. For more about
Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). Bucke (1837–1902), a Canadian physician,
was Whitman's first biographer, and would later become 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 endorsed:
"Send the letters & one | slip to Dr. B | Dr I want Ford's & O'C's |
letters returned to me." [back]
- 2. Sidney H. Morse (1832–1903)
was a self-taught sculptor as well as a Unitarian minister and, from 1866 to
1872, editor of The Radical. He visited Whitman in Camden
many times and made various busts of him. Whitman had commented on an earlier
bust by Morse that it was "wretchedly bad." For more on this, see Ruth L. Bohan,
Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art,
1850–1920 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,
2006), 105–109. [back]
- 3. Elias Hicks (1748–1830) was a
Quaker from Long Island whose controversial teachings led to a split in the
Religious Society of Friends in 1827, a division that was not resolved until
1955. Hicks had been a friend of Whitman's father and grandfather, and Whitman
himself was a supporter and proponent of Hicks's teachings, writing about him in
Specimen Days (see "Reminiscence of Elias Hicks") and November
Boughs (see "Elias Hicks, Notes (such as they are)"). For more on Hicks and his
influence on Whitman, see David S. Reynolds, Walt Whitman's
America (New York: Knopf, 1995), 37–39. [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. See the letter from
William D. O'Connor to Whitman of April 14,
1888. [back]
- 6. A letter from art critic
Sheridan Ford on April 13, 1888 invited the poet
to give a series of lectures in England and Scotland in the fall. See also
Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Friday, April 5, 1889. [back]
- 7. Robert "Bob" Green Ingersoll
(1833–1899) was a Civil War veteran and an orator of the post-Civil War
era, known for his support of agnosticism. Ingersoll was a friend of Whitman,
who considered Ingersoll the greatest orator of his time. Whitman said to Horace
Traubel, "It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll, for he is
Leaves of Grass. He lives, embodies, the
individuality I preach. I see in Bob the noblest
specimen—American-flavored—pure out of the soil, spreading, giving,
demanding light" (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Wednesday, March 25, 1891). The feeling was mutual. Upon Whitman's
death in 1892, Ingersoll delivered the eulogy at the poet's funeral. The eulogy
was published to great acclaim and is considered a classic panegyric (see
Phyllis Theroux, The Book of Eulogies [New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1997], 30). [back]