Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 26 February 1891
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Medical Superintendent's
Office.
INSANE ASYLUM
LONDON ONTARIO1
26 Feb 1891
Your card of 23d to hand.2
The enema business is all very well in its way but it will not do much for you—you want the upper bowel to act as well as the lower—if you would take a dose of Freidrichshall3 early in the morning and an enema after 3 or 4 hours to assist it (if necessary) that would be more like what is wanted and you might do this 2 or 3 times a week. I have "Lip."4 and shall look out for the "N.A. Rev."5 All well here. Country wild over elections6—nomination today—polling a week today—looks as if we (liberals) might win
R M Bucke
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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: Walt Whitman | 328 Mickle Street | Camden | New Jersey U.S.A. It is postmarked: LONDON | AM | FE 27 | 91 | CANADA; NY | 2-28-91 | 230 PM | 12; CAMDEN, N.J. | MAR [illegible] | [illegible] PM | 1891 | REC'D; [illegible] | 12. [back]
- 2. Bucke is referring to Whitman's postal card of February 23, 1891. [back]
- 3. Friedrichshall water is a purgative mineral water from springs located near Heidelberg, Germany. It was one of several mineral waters commonly used in the late nineteenth century to treat constipation. (See C. R. C. Tichborne, The Mineral Waters of Europe [London: Baillière, Tindall & Cox, 1883], Chapter 3, "Chemistry of the Purgative Waters.") [back]
- 4. Lippincott's Monthly Magazine was a literary magazine published in Philadelphia from 1868 to 1915. Joseph Marshall Stoddart was the editor of the magazine from 1886 to 1894, and he frequently published material by and about Whitman. For more information on Whitman's numerous publications here, see Susan Belasco, "Lippincott's Magazine." [back]
- 5. The North American Review was the first literary magazine in the United States. The journalist Charles Allen Thorndike Rice (1851–1889) edited and published the magazine in New York from 1876 until his death. After Rice's death, Lloyd Bryce became owner and editor. [back]
- 6. The main issue of the Canadian national election of 1891 was tariffs, with the Conservative Party, led by John A. Macdonald (1815–1891), wanting protective tariffs while the Liberal Party, led by Wilfred Laurier (1841–1919), wanted free trade with the U.S. The Conservatives won the election. [back]