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Camden
1889
Saturday noon June 81
Suppose you got the little poem2 in N Y World June 7 I sent—It
was specially requested by the editor & written in an hour & a half & sent
on to N Y by mail the same even'g 6th—I believe I told you I am to get $25
for it—We are all here yet under the depression of the fearful cataclysm,
so deadly, so near—3
Cloudy & dull weather—bowel action to day—Y'rs rec'd4— I see you
like the pocket-b'k ed'n of L of G5— yes, I am satisfied with it, everything
but the press work—McK's6 current ed'n including Annex, is well
printed—McKay is to start off on a long business & drumming tour west—goes
in three weeks, will be away two months—
My worst present botheration is this catarrhal or head gathering, half
ache, half heavy weight & discomfort—fortunately I sweat pretty easily &
often—I fancy it is good for me—weather variable—coolish just now. I
enclose a letter to me from John Burroughs7—and one from an old soldier
boy8—lately rec'd—
Sunday, 9th A M
Rather a warm night—temperature changed greatly at evn'g—but I
must have slept fairly—warm to-day here—breakfasted on rice-&-mutton-broth &
asparagus & some Graham bread & coffee—fair bowel action this
forenoon—rather "under the weather" yesterday & this forenoon, (but of
course it will move off cloud like)—
A good Illinoisian & wife came to see me last evening—bo't a big book9—(enthusiastic
ab't L of G.)—rec'd a letter f'm Mary Costelloe10—all
well—
I am writing a little—"poemets"—one yesterday11—what names (if
any) in Canada send me them of great wealthy public bequeathors or
benefactors, like our Girard and Johns Hopkins? I want to make a piece
ab't them & put names in—
Towards noon—sun out—a fine June day—
W W
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West Park N.Y.
May 11 / 89
Dear Walt:
Yesterday on my way up to Olive to see my wife's father, who is near the end of his
life's journey, I read in the Tribune of the death of Wm
O'Connor.12
I
was news I had been expecting for some time, yet it was a stunning blow
for all that I know how keenly you must feel it, & you have
loc.01167.002_large.jpg
my deepest sympathy. No words come to my pen adequate to express the sense of the
loss we have we suffered in the death of that chivalrous & eloquent soul. How strange
that his life has all passed, that I shall see or hear him no more.
And it is sad to me to think that he has left behind him no work or book that at all
expresses the measure of his great powers. What loc.01167.003_large.jpg
a gift of speech that man had! If you can tell me anything about his last days I
shall be very glad to hear it. Also where he is buried.
I am pretty well, & have been immersed in farm work for the past six weeks. We
have rented our house to a New York man for 5 months. Julian13 & I live in the old
house with a man who works for me, & Ursula14 boards in Po'Keepsie. I hope this
great heat for loc.01167.004_large.jpg the past few days has not prostrated you. Tell Harry
Trauble 15 to write to me.
The wave of orchard bloom has just passed over us & the world has been very
lovely. Drop me a line my dear friend if you are able to do so.
With the old love
John Burroughs
loc.03559.001_large.jpg
A. D. HANNAH, Vice Pres. DAVID
HOGG, Pres.
HANNAH AND HOGG,
(Incorporated)
Wholesale Liquors
and Cigars
Office:
222 and 224 SOUTH CLARK STREET.
Stores.
146 MADISON STREET.
88
LA SALLE STREET.
222 & 224 CLARK STREET.
188 W. MADISON STREET.
73 S.
HALSTED STREET.
83 MADISON STREET.
151 RANDOLPH STREET.
112 MONROE
STREET.
161 W. MADISON STREET.16
Chicago,
June 1st
188917
My Dear Old Friend18
The enclosed I clipped from the Inter Ocean today, and as this is my 48th birthday, I am prompted by old recolections to write you
a few lines congratulating you on your 70th birthday. I hope you will long
and prosper. This brings me back to 27 years ago when I used to see your sturdy form and kindly face in Washington. I don't know that you will remember me but I think you will.
Do you remember the young man of the 5th US Cavalary who you used to visit in Armory Square Hospital and the many times
you used to take me into a Restaurant and give me a loc.03559.002_large.jpg
loc.03559.003_large.jpg
good square meal. I suppose you done that to so many you would hardly remember me by that. for all Soldiers know to you looked upon you
as their friend, for you ever wore your heart on your sleeve to Old Soldier boys. You used to call me Cody then. I
well rember the last time I saw you it was in in the street in New York you had a little
girl with you at the time, and readily recognised me. Well I have not changed so very much only of course somewhat older. hair sprinkled somewhat with gray. Your hair cannot be much more white than
it was in the long ago. I hope you are in good health and may continue so to a good loc.03559.004_large.jpg
loc.03559.005_large.jpg round old age. for you deserve it well and you also deserve well of your
country. for you were ever a friend of the Soldier and of your country. 27 years and what history for the U.S has been written in that time. For the years gone by I have often passed through Camden,
and had I known it was your home I should surely have stopped to see you, that I might once more have crasped you by the hand and looked into
that kindly face and fought over our battles (once again) in Washington. I would like very much to hear from you. should you remember me and have the leisure and should I in the
future be near loc.03559.006_large.jpg Camden. I will certainly do myself the pleasure of calling on you.
Bleive me
Yours Sincerly
MC Reed19
222 So Clark st
Chicago Ill
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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. This letter is addressed:
Dr Bucke | Asylum | London | Ontario | Canada. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. |
Jun 9 | 5pm | 89; Philadelphia, PA | Jun | 9 | 6PM | 1889 | Transit; Buffalo,
N.Y. | Jun | 10 | 12M | 1889 | Transit; London | AM | JU 11 | 89 |
Canada. [back]
- 2. Whitman is referring to his poem,
"A Voice from Death," which was published in the New
York World on June 7, 1889, and, seemingly, in the Camden Courier on the same day. [back]
- 3. The Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood occurred on
May 31, 1889, as the result of the cataclysmic failure of the South Fork Dam;
over 2200 people were killed. The poem Whitman mentions at the beginning of this
letter dealt with that flood and its aftereffects. [back]
- 4. Whitman is referring to
Bucke's letters of June 4 and June 5, 1889. [back]
- 5. Whitman had a limited
pocket-book edition of Leaves of Grass printed in honor
of his 70th birthday, on May 31, 1889, through special arrangement with
Frederick Oldach. Only 300 copies were printed, and Whitman signed the title
page of each one. The volume also included the annex Sands at
Seventy and his essay A Backward Glance O'er Traveled
Roads. See Whitman's May 16, 1889, letter
to Oldach. For more information on the book see Ed Folsom, Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman: A Catalog and
Commentary (University of Iowa: Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, 2005). [back]
- 6. 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]
- 7. 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]
- 8. Whitman is likely
referring to John Burroughs' letter of May 11,
1889 and Milford Reed's letter of June 1,
1889. [back]
- 9. Whitman often referred to Complete Poems & Prose (1888) as his "big book." The
volume was published by the poet himself in an arrangement with publisher David
McKay, who allowed Whitman to use the plates for both Leaves
of Grass and Specimen Days—in December
1888. With the help of Horace Traubel, Whitman made the presswork and binding
decisions, and Frederick Oldach bound the volume, which included a profile photo
of the poet on the title page. For more information on the book, see Ed Folsom,
Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman: A Catalog and
Commentary (University of Iowa: Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, 2005). [back]
- 10. Whitman received a letter
from Costelloe on May 10, 1889; he may be
referring to this letter. [back]
- 11. Whitman Sent "My 71st Year" on June 9, 1889 to Richard Watson Gilder of the Century, where it appeared in November. He received
$12 (Whitman's Commonplace Book [Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the
Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.]). On June 11, 1889 he sent "Bravo, Paris Exposition!" to the New York Herald and requested $10. When it was returned he sent it, on June
13, 1889, to the New York World and asked $6
(Commonplace Book). It was finally published in Harper's
Weekly; see the letter from Whitman to Bucke of September 25, 1889. [back]
- 12. 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]
- 13. Julian Burroughs
(1878–1954), the only son of John and Ursula Burroughs, later became a
landscape painter, writer, and photographer. [back]
- 14. Ursula North Burroughs
(1836–1917) was John Burroughs's wife. Ursula and John were married on
September 12, 1857. The couple maintained a small farm overlooking the Hudson
River in West Park, Ulster County. They adopted a son, Julian, at two months of
age. It was only later revealed that John himself was the biological father of
Julian. [back]
- 15. 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]
- 16. This letterhead is on all
three pages of stationery. [back]
- 17. Whitman sent this letter as
an enclosure in his June [8]–9 1889, letter
to Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke. [back]
- 18. The annotation, "from an old cavalry
soldier," is in the hand of Walt Whitman. [back]
- 19. Milford C. Reed (1844–1894),
also known as Cody M. Reed, was born in New York and moved to Michigan,
eventually enlisting in the Company K of the Third Michigan Infantry. He
transferred to the U.S. cavalry and served for 19 months from November 1862
until June 1864 in Company F of the Fifth Cavalry. He then served in the First
New York Light Artillery in 1864–1865. He wrote to Whitman on May 26, 1865 to ask him for help with a watch he
had pawned. For more on Reed, see Steve Soper, Men of the 3rd
Michigan Infantry, "Cody M. Reed," oldthirdmichigan.org. [back]