Camden
Evn'g March 17 '891
Pleasant visit f'm Mrs: Spaulding2 of Boston, friend of L
of G. & of me3—I rather think Dr [Bucke]'s4 meter
business5 will be practically started, & will be a success—Horace
Traubel6 will be Secretary.
Things with me abt same—I sit here in my big chair alone most of the time, as ever,
same old monotonous story—yet I keep a good front I hope—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
William Douglas O'Connor
(1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet
The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866.
For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Wm D O'Connor | 1015 O Street N W | Washington | D C. It is postmarked: Camden
(?) | Mar 17 | 5 PM | 89; Washington, Rec'd. | Mar 18 | (?) AM | 89 | 7. [back]
- 2. Ada H. Pearsons Spaulding (b. 1841)
was a socialite and active member of various reform movements. She wrote a
number of letters to Whitman in his final years. [back]
- 3. In her March 27, 1889, letter to Whitman, she expressed
extravagant gratitude for the visit. On one of her calling cards the poet wrote:
"dear friend of L of G & me—a middle-aged lady—I sh'd
say—one of the real circle." The calling card
is part of the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of Walt Whitman papers, held by
the Library of Congress, See MSS18630, Box 41, Reel 26. [back]
- 4. 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]
- 5. Bucke and his brother-in-law
William John Gurd were designing a gas and fluid meter to be patented in Canada
and sold in England. [back]
- 6. 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]