July 15 '901
Am as well as c'd be expected, & still hold the fort (sort o') as we say.
Dr Johnston2 has arrived & has been with me the last hour, & is well, &
is to come to-morrow—Dear friend, y'r appreciation & kindness & messages are indeed accepted
& absorbed fully by me. I am getting along better than you fancy, tho old & completely physically
disabled & paralyzed—hot weather (extra) here—Love to you & the friends—
Walt Whitman
(thanks for the Dante3 books)4
Correspondent:
James William Wallace
(1853–1926), of Bolton, England, was an architect and great admirer of
Whitman. Wallace, along with Dr. John Johnston (1852–1927), a physician in
Bolton, founded the "Bolton College" of English admirers of the poet. Johnston
and Wallace corresponded with Whitman and with Horace Traubel and other members
of the Whitman circle in the United States, and they separately visited the poet
and published memoirs of their trips in John Johnston and James William Wallace,
Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–1891 by Two
Lancashire Friends (London: Allen and Unwin, 1917). For more
information on Wallace, see Larry D. Griffin, "Wallace, James William (1853–1926)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed: J
W Wallace | Anderton near Chorley | Lancashire England. It is postmarked:
Philadelphia, Pa. | Jul 16 | 8 AM | Paid. [back]
- 2. Dr. John Johnston (1852–1927)
of Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, was a physician, photographer, and avid
cyclist. Johnston was trained in Edinburgh and served as a hospital surgeon in
West Bromwich for two years before moving to Bolton, England, in 1876. Johnston
worked as a general practitioner in Bolton and as an instructor of ambulance
classes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways. He served at Whalley Military
Hospital during World War I and became Medical Superintendent of Townley's
Hospital in 1917 (John Anson, "Bolton's Illustrious Doctor Johnston—a man
of many talents," Bolton News [March 28, 2021]; Paul
Salveson, Moorlands, Memories, and Reflections: A Centenary
Celebration of Allen Clarke's Moorlands and Memories [Lancashire
Loominary, 2020]). Johnston, along with the architect James W. Wallace, founded
the "Bolton College" of English admirers of the poet. Johnston and Wallace
corresponded with Whitman and with Horace Traubel and other members of the
Whitman circle in the United States, and they separately visited the poet and
published memoirs of their trips in John Johnston and James William Wallace, Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–1891 by Two Lancashire
Friends (London: Allen and Unwin, 1917). For more information on
Johnston, see Larry D. Griffin, "Johnston, Dr. John (1852–1927)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. Dante Alighieri (1265?–1321) was an Italian
poet best known for his Divine Comedy, a cosmology of the
afterlife in three parts—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. [back]
- 4. According to a typescript held by the County
Bourough of Bolton England and Whitman's Commonplace Book, on May 10 Johnston
and Wallace sent birthday greetings and a gift of £10 (Commonplace Book,
Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; typescript: County Borough of Bolton
(England) Public Libraries). Wallace wrote on June 27,
1890 to inform Walt Whitman that Johnston, who was not well, was
coming to America to see the poet and to visit places on Long Island and in New
York mentioned in Specimen Days. Wallace replied to Walt
Whitman's card on August 1: "I have considered it one of the main privileges of
my life (since my mother's death the main privilege of my life) to be able to
communicate with you personally and to tender you my deep reverence and love"
(typescript: County Borough of Bolton (England) Public Libraries). [back]