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Camden1
July 2 '90
It is just after noon—raining as if it meant so all day—have had a long
hot spell—am getting through it pretty well,—have lived lately on
blackberries & bread—bowel action to-day—have just written a little
poemet "Sail out for good for aye O mystic yacht of me"2
for outset of my intended last 12 page copyright Vol. annex concluding L of G.3 I sit
here turning occasionally to the open window to see the thick falling
rain—
Walt Whitman
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Kennedy4 has sent H.5 a piece "W W's Quaker
Traits,"6 to be printed7—
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. Dr Bucke | Asylum |
London | Ontario | Canada. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Jul 2 | 8 PM | 90;
London | PM | Jy 4 | 9 | Canada. [back]
- 2. "Sail Out for Good,
Eidólon Yacht!" was one of four poemets published as part of "Old-Age Echoes" in the March 1891 issue of Lippincott's magazine. The other poemets that make up "Old-Age Echoes"
are "Sounds of Winter," "The Unexpress'd," and "After the Argument." [back]
- 3. Whitman is referring to the
group of thirty-one poems taken from the book Good-Bye My
Fancy (1891) that were reprinted as the second annex to Leaves of Grass (1891–1892), the last edition of
Leaves published in Whitman's lifetime. For more
information on Good-Bye My Fancy, as a book and an annex,
see Donald Barlow Stauffer, "Good-Bye my Fancy (Second Annex) (1891)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 4. William Sloane Kennedy
(1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also
published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on
the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander
Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman,
in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse
indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was
"too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February
1881), 149–158. 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). [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 Quaker Traits of
Walt Whitman" appeared in the July 1890 issue of Horace Traubel's The Conservator; it was reprinted in In
Re Walt Whitman (Philadelphia, PA: David McKay, 1893), 213–214, a
volume edited by Horace Traubel, Richard Maurice Bucke, and Thomas B. Harned. It
was also reprinted in William Sloane Kennedy's Reminiscences
of Walt Whitman (London: Alexander Gardner, 1896), 86–87. In Fight of a Book for the World (West Yarmouth, MA: The
Stonecroft Press, 1926), Kennedy confirms: "The date authenticated by W.W."
(273). [back]
- 7. This postscript is written
at the top of the postal card. [back]