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Camden
Aug: 29 '891
Am writing this just before sunset—feeling pretty fair—been
requested by Alden2 the editor to write a piece for Harper's Monthly, & shall
send it off this evn'g—If printed I shall either send it you or inform
you—Dick Flynn3 came last evn'g, & he & Ed:4 are off to-day in Phila—I
believe Dick goes hence Saturday—shall probably send the picture by him
—just had to pay nearly $40 for taxes to the banditti who govern our city
here 5—word from Burroughs6 yesterday—he is well—back in West
Park7—
Walt Whitman
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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. |
Aug 29 | 8 PM | 89. [back]
- 2. Henry Mills Alden (1836–1919)
was managing editor of Harper's Weekly from 1863 to 1869
and editor of Harper's Monthly Magazine from 1869 until
his death. [back]
- 3. Whitman mentions Dick Flynn
in his October 14, 1880, letter to Thomas
Nicholson. Like Nicholson, Flynn was an employee at Bucke's asylum, doing odd
jobs. Whitman came to know him during his visit to the asylum in 1880 and
admired Flynn's gardening. Flynn took a tour of the U.S. in 1889 and visted
Whitman Camden home, where he carried the Gutekunst photographic portrait of
Whitman back to Dr. Bucke in London Ontario. Whitman and Bucke both greatly
admired this photographic portrait. [back]
- 4. Edward "Ned" Wilkins
(1865–1936) was one of Whitman's nurses during his Camden years; he was
sent to Camden from London, Ontario, by Dr. Richard M. Bucke, and he began
caring for Whitman on November 5, 1888. He stayed for a year before returning to
Canada to attend the Ontario Veterinary School. Wilkins graduated on March 24,
1893, and then he returned to the United States to commence his practice in
Alexandria, Indiana. For more information, see Bert A. Thompson, "Edward
Wilkins: Male Nurse to Walt Whitman," Walt Whitman Review
15 (September 1969), 194–195. [back]
- 5. Whitman paid a city tax
of $25.28 on August 24 and a water tax bill for $8.40 on August 28. Of
the former he wrote: "In Italy & Greece they have a dis-illegal
banditti— here we have a regular legal one, & numerous &
remorseless" (Whitman's Commonplace Book [Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the
Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.]). [back]
- 6. 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]
- 7. Whitman received a letter
from Burroughs on August 27, 1889. [back]