Wallace2 and I reached here sound and well about 8 o'clock last evening. The Asylum band was out in front of the house and they played quite a while to welcome me home.—All is in good shape here and the folk all well—the health of the Asylum has been excellent during my 2 month absence.3 I have a pile of work in front of me which it will take me weeks to wade thro' but I feel well and able to accomplish the whole job. Wallace will like it here and he will have a good visit and rest. Mrs Bucke4 sends her love to you. I will not write much of a letter now but will drop a line from day to day and whatever turns up you shall have it fresh.
Always with love R M Bucke loc_zs.00423.jpg loc_zs.00424.jpg see notes Sept 14 1891Correspondent:
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).