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Camden
Saturday noon July 13 '891
Cloudy (rainy last night)—Still hot—Still eat & sleep fairly—
take the tonic—y'r letter ab't Mrs O'C2 rec'd—doubt whether it w'd
suit her—such a plan—am not moved to it favorably3—Most things are
bad enough with me, but I am blessed thankful they are no worse & that I
get along as well as I do—Am getting along better than you suppose—rec'd a letter I enclose it from John Burroughs.4 His address for twelve
days will be Hobart N Y. The printing of Horace's5 little book6 is progressing—I am
writing nothing—strech'd out on the bed half the time fanning
away the flies &c—not down ill but not far from that—some blackberries
& a rare egg for my breakfast—
Sunset—Have had my supper & relish'd it—send this hence Camden
(to Phila) 8 P M July 13—see & itemize to me, when it reaches you—over an
hour's rain latter afternoon—I am feeling fairly—sweating—Well we must have a turn
in the temperature presently—perhaps to-night
Best regards & love to Mrs. B7 and all—
Walt Whitman
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West Park N.Y.
July 12, 89
Dear Walt,
I write you briefly this morning before starting on my 2 week vacation to Delaware Co. I
rec'd the pocket book copy8 of L.G.
& prize it very highly. It is unique. I was very sorry I could not see you on the day you
was 70 years old. At that time I was having
one of my streaks of insomnia, &
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was very wretched for two or three weeks. It has worn off & I am feeling much better.
The summer has been a very busy one with me. The young grape vines grow so fast that it keeps me going to tie them
up to the stakes. I go about all day with two balls of twine at my side, training the young vines in the way
they should go, & tying them in that way.
I do hope you keep about. I wish some good masculine angel would come & lift you out of Camden, bag & baggage
& set you down here, or loc.01170.003_large.jpg
or by the sea, or in the mountains A change of air now would greatly add to the length of your days. You ought to
know this, & I will not bore you with it. I hear from Horace now & then, always gladly.
I have not seen O'Connor's9 reviews of Donnelly's10 Reviewers.11 If you have a copy send it to me at
Hobart N.Y. & I will return it.
With much love
John Burroughs
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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, NJ | Jul
13 | 8PM | 89; NY | 7-014-89 | 11 AM | 9; London | A[illegible] | JY | 15 | 89 | Canada. [back]
- 2. Ellen M. "Nelly" O'Connor (1830–1913) was the
wife of William D. O'Connor (1832–1889), one of Whitman's staunchest
defenders. Before marrying William, Ellen Tarr was active in the antislavery and
women's rights movements as a contributor to the Liberator and to a women's rights newspaper Una. Whitman dined with the O'Connors frequently during his Washington
years. Though Whitman and William O'Connor would temporarily break off their
friendship in late 1872 over Reconstruction policies with regard to emancipated
African Americans, Ellen would remain friendly with Whitman. The correspondence
between Whitman and Ellen is almost as voluminous as the poet's correspondence
with William. Three years after William O'Connor's death, Ellen married the
Providence businessman Albert Calder. For more on Whitman's relationship with the O'Connors, see Dashae
E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas [1832–1889]" and Lott's "O'Connor (Calder),
Ellen ('Nelly') M. Tarr (1830–1913)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. Bucke's letter is not
extant, but Whitman summarized its contents for Traubel: "Doctor's last letter
was written in a terrible strain: he proposes to me that, Mrs. O'Connor having
no place her own now—nothing to do—that we somehow set up a
bargain—that she keep house for me—that we go into alliance, get
spliced" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Saturday, July 13, 1889). Bucke's reasoning was not an illogical
deduction from Mrs. O'Connor's letter of July 3,
1889. [back]
- 4. 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]
- 5. 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]
- 6. The notes and addresses that
were delivered at Whitman's seventieth birthday celebration in Camden, on May
31, 1889, were collected and edited by Horace Traubel. The volume was titled Camden's Compliment to Walt Whitman, and it included a
photo of Sidney Morse's 1887 clay bust of Whitman as the frontispiece. The book
was published in 1889 by Philadelphia publisher David McKay. [back]
- 7. Jessie Maria Gurd Bucke
(1839–1926) grew up in Mooretown, Upper Canada. She was the daughter of
William Gurd, an army officer from Ireland. Gurd married Richard Maurice Bucke
in 1865. The couple had eight children. [back]
- 8. 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]
- 9. 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]
- 10. 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]
- 11. In his pamphlet Mr. Donnelly's Reviewers (Chicago: Belford, Clarke &
Co., 1889), O'Connor attempted to defend Ignatius Donnelly's Baconian theories,
as found in The Great Crytogram (1887). [back]