Dr. John Johnston to Walt Whitman, 17 October 1891

 loc_tb.00003.jpg 54 Manchester Road, Bolton. England,1 Oct 17th 1891. My Dear Old Friend,

Another dear, good letter from you was received yesterday2 for which I send you my heartiest thanks. How good it is of you to write to me so often! And you suffering from so many physical disabilities too!

I can do naught but reverently accept these continued tokens of your great love & with grateful heart say—"I thank you."

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The best & most welcome news in your letter was contained in the words—"nothing worse with me" which was indeed glad tidings to us all here I do hope & trust that this comparatively good report will be confirmed by the next news about you.

I thank you, too, for sending me Dr Bucke's3 letter to you from Montreal & I shall look forward to seeing a copy of his address,4 as I feel sure it will prove well worthy of the man whom I am proud to call friend.

I am very sorry to hear that good Mrs Davis5 has had a ten days illness, but am glad to know that she was getting better when you wrote. Will you please give her my kindest regards & my sincere sympathy in her trouble which I trust may be nothing serious? She must take care of herself for her own & for all our sakes.

I received the book you kindly sent for George Humphreys6 yesterday7 & thank you cordially for your kindness in sending it. He is very proud of it & will write to  loc_tb.00006.jpg thank you personally by next mail. He is a very intelligent working-man, mainly self taught, & has a sincere love for you & appreciation of your message.

I am sending you this month's Review of Reviews,8 & a cutting from the Strand Magazine9 for Oct about yr friend Tennyson10 wh: will interest you.

Weather here very unsettled—a great deal of rain. Today we had some magnificent cloud effects.

I am wondering often & often about my dear friend Wallace11 & his doings.12 You dont know how much we all miss him & how we are hungering & thirsting for him.

God's blessing rest upon you & yours now & ever is the heart felt prayer of yours affectionately

J. Johnston  loc_jm.00409.jpg  loc_jm.00410.jpg

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Notes

• 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | 328 Mickle St | Camden | New Jersey | U. S. America. It is postmarked: Bolton | [illegible]6 | OC [illegible] | 91; Camden, N.J. | Oct 2[illegible] | 6 AM | 91 | Rec'd.; Paid | G | All.; G | 91; [illegible] | Oct | 29. The recto of the envelope is endorsed: "J J." [back]
• 2. Whitman wrote to Johnston on October 3, 1891 and October 6, 1891. Johnston is almost certainly referring to one of these letters. [back]
• 3. 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). [back]
• 4. Dr. Bucke received his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal in 1862, and he returned there in 1891 at the request of the medical faculty in order to deliver the opening academic lecture, "The Value of the Study of Medicine." The lecture was published in the Montreal Medical Journal 20 (November 1891), 321–345. [back]
• 5. Mary Oakes Davis (1837 or 1838–1908) was Whitman's housekeeper. For more, see Carol J. Singley, "Davis, Mary Oakes (1837 or 1838–1908)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
• 6. Little is known about the millwright and machine-fitter George Humphreys, who was a member of the Bolton College group of Whitman admirers. [back]
• 7. Whitman offered to send "Humphries" a copy of Leaves of Grass in a July 31, 1891, postal card to Johnston. [back]
• 8. The Review of Reviews was a magazine begun by the reform journalist William Thomas Stead (1849–1912) in 1890 and published in Great Britain. It contained reviews and excerpts from other magazines and journals, as well as original pieces, many written by Stead himself. Mary Costelloe on March 14, 1890, had sent Whitman a copy from England. [back]
• 9. The Strand Magazine was a British montly magazine founded by the editor and publisher George Newnes (1851–1910). The magazine's run began in January of 1891 and extended well into the twentieth century, through March 1950. The Strand published short fiction and fiction series, as well as general interest factual articles. [back]
• 10. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) succeeded William Wordsworth as poet laureate of Great Britain in 1850. The intense male friendship described in In Memoriam, which Tennyson wrote after the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, possibly influenced Whitman's poetry. Whitman wrote to Tennyson in 1871 or late 1870, probably shortly after the visit of Cyril Flower in December, 1870, but the letter is not extant (see Thomas Donaldson, Walt Whitman the Man [New York: F. P. Harper, 1896], 223). Tennyson's first letter to Whitman is dated July 12, 1871. Although Tennyson extended an invitation for Whitman to visit England, Whitman never acted on the offer. [back]
• 11. James William Wallace (1853–1926), of Bolton, England, was an architect and great admirer of Whitman. Wallace, along with Dr. John Johnston (1852–1927), a physician in Bolton, 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 Wallace, see Larry D. Griffin, "Wallace, James William (1853–1926)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
• 12. Wallace visited Whitman in Camden, New Jersey, and the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke at Bucke's home in London, Ontario, Canada, in the fall of 1891. He also spent time in New York during the trip. Accounts of Wallace's visit can be found in Dr. John Johnston and Wallace's Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–91 (London, England: G. Allen & Unwin, ltd., 1917). [back]