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Walt Whitman to Richard Maurice Bucke, 23 January 1892

Am deadly weak yet2—otherwise inclined to favorable—bowel drain sufficient—appetite fair—The plaster cast come safe3 to Dr J[ohnston]4—Bolton5—Ralph Moore6 is dead—Tom Harned7 well—my doctors & attendants cont[inue] first rate—Horace8 ever faithful—am propp'd up in bed—

God bless you all—

Walt Whitman

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 Camden, N.J. | Jan 24 | 5 PM | 92 (?); London | PM | Ja 25 | 92 | Canada. [back]
  • 2. On December 17, 1891, Whitman had come down with a chill and was suffering from congestion in his right lung. Although the poet's condition did improve in January 1892, he would never recover. He was confined to his bed, and his physicians, Dr. Daniel Longaker of Philadelphia and Dr. Alexander McAlister of Camden, provided care during his final illness. Whitman died on March 26, 1892. [back]
  • 3. Whitman is referring to the bust by Sidney Morse that he sent to the minister Robert Pearsall Smith in September, 1887; see Whitman's letter to Smith of September 12, 1887, and Whitman's letter to Richard Maurice Bucke of October 20, 1891. Whitman had asked the Bolton physician Dr. John Johnston if he or the Bolton architect James W. Wallace would like to have the bust in his August 16–17, 1891, letter to Johnston. Johnston replied on August 29: "I would do much more than care for it—I would prize it very, very highly & would give it a place of honour in my home second to none of my possessions." [back]
  • 4. 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]
  • 5. On January 30, 1892, Horace Traubel wrote to the Bolton architect James W. Wallace: "He [Whitman] is greatly pleased that the Morse bust has reached you safely. He has many kind words to say of that piece of work, and really thinks that 'Our dear, dear Sidney,' as he spoke of him the other day, comes nearer the 'critter,' and is more faithful to the truth as it is in Whitman, than any other man who has attempted to 'do' him; and he moreover declares the figor and breth of Morse's work, quick with the instinct and generic quality of life. This is his last word on that head" (Traubel, Bucke, and Thomas Harned, ed., In Re Walt Whitman [Philadelphia: David McKay, 1893], 420). In the last months of the poet's life, Traubel kept Johnston, Wallace, and the members of the Bolton College of English Whitman admirers informed and answered their letters to the poet. [back]
  • 6. Ralph Moore was the superintendent of Harleigh Cemetery, where Whitman had had his marble tomb built. [back]
  • 7. Thomas Biggs Harned (1851–1921) was one of Whitman's literary executors. Harned was a lawyer in Philadelphia and, having married Augusta Anna Traubel (1856–1914), was Horace Traubel's brother-in-law. For more on him, see Dena Mattausch, "Harned, Thomas Biggs (1851–1921)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). For more on his relationship with Whitman, see Thomas Biggs Harned, Memoirs of Thomas B. Harned, Walt Whitman's Friend and Literary Executor, ed. Peter Van Egmond (Hartford: Transcendental Books, 1972). [back]
  • 8. 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]
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