Skip to main content

Walt Whitman to Richard Maurice Bucke, 5 February 1891

 loc_zs.00259.jpg

Y'r own letter of recovery2 (or essentially) came last evn'g [illegible] was a great relief—to H T3 also—I handed it to him. The slip Springfield Rep: must be '82 or '3, & probably by Frank Sanborn4—Nothing notable to write Sunshiny & cold—

Walt Whitman  loc_zs.00260.jpg

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 postal card is addressed: Dr Bucke | Asylum | London | Ontario | Canada. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Feb 6 | 6 AM | 91; N.Y. | 2-6-91 | 10 30AM | 8. [back]
  • 2. Whitman is referring to Bucke's letter of February 4, 1891. [back]
  • 3. 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]
  • 4. Whitman may be referrring to the notice that appeared on November 10, 1881. See Whitman's letter to the Editor of The Springfield Republican of November 13, 1881. [back]
Back to top