Walt Whitman to Richard Maurice Bucke, 6 May 1890
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Camden1
PM May 6 '90
Have not written much lately because I expect to see you soon & I have had four days of this siege of grip viciously departing (I hope departing)—But am decidedly easier to-day—am weaker than ever—my thoughts clear enough I suppose, but legs & spine weak, weak—appetite (wh' was quite gone) returning wet & dark weather
—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: CAMD[illegible] [illegible]J. MAY 7 | 6 AM | 90, LONDON | AM | MY 8 | O | CANADA; N.Y. | 1890 | 1030 AM | 8. [back]