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Camden
Saturday noon Nov: 16
'891
Bright sunny cold day—feeling fairly—bowel action—an egg, Graham
toast, stew'd peaches & cocoa for breakfast—reading & scribbling
aimlessly—a lull in visitors, mail &c—Mrs. O'C[onnor]2 must be in Washington D C same address—Wm3 left two great boxes of MSS wh' she is to overhaul—he had
for many years been at intervals on a story "the Brazen
Android"4—quaint and old &
mystic—was once sent out & partly set in type (by the Atlantic) & then recall'd by O'C—
I am sitting here as usual (the same old story)—have a good oak-wood
fire—am ab't to have my currying—makes a good
midday break indeed—very sunny out—
W W
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Sat: Evn'g—6½—Mrs: O'C did not go—leaves Monday—has
been over here a couple of hours—is having a nice visit to
Phila—Alys Smith5 & a fellow student girl
have been here this evn'g—good visits, talks &c—
Clear weather continued—Y'rs rec'd & welcomed—Am feeling
fairly—Suspicion of more strength in
me—splendid effect f'm electric light shining in on big bunch of snowy
white chrysanthemums—
Love—
W W
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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. |
Nov 16 | 8 PM | 89; Buffalo, N.Y. | Nov | [illegible] | 1889 | Transit; London | AM | NO 18 | 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. 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]
- 4. "The Brazen Android" was
included in William Douglas O'Connor's Three Tales
(1892), with "The Ghost" and "The Carpenter." [back]
- 5. Alyssa ("Alys") Whitall Pearsall
Smith (1867–1951) was born in Philadelphia and became a Quaker relief
organizer. She attended Bryn Mawr College and was a graduate of the class of
1890. She and her family lived in Britain for two years during her childhood and
again beginning in 1888. She married the philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1894;
the couple later separated, and they divorced in 1921. Smith also served as the
chair of a society committee that set up the "Mothers and Babies Welcome" (the
St Pancras School for Mothers) in London in 1907; this health center, dedicated
to reducing the infant mortality rate, provided a range of medical and
educational services for women. Smith was the daughter of Robert Pearsall and
Hannah Whitall Smith, and she was the sister of Mary Whitall Smith
(1864–1945), the political activist, art historian, and critic, whom
Whitman once called his "staunchest living woman friend." [back]