[London, Ont.,]1
3 April [188]9
Willy Gurd2 has gone East. Left here this morning on 11.30 train,
goes direct to N.Y., will spend a couple of days there buying certain material
wanted for meter, then proceed to Danbury3 to construct
gas meter. About end of May he ought to be through and if all goes well I may be
East again in June or July. [—] I send you today a copy of my Annual report,
after you have looked it over let Horace4 have it—I have
only a very few copies so cannot send one to Each as I intended—tell H. to
show it to anyone he knows of who wants to see it. It is warmer today, snow nearly
gone, spring may set in in earnest soon now tho' it is still very early with us for
any growth. I am well, getting a good rest since my return home, sleep about 10
hours a night right along. Am still very much occupied all day so that I have time
to read only a very little—Am just finishing "Wieland"5 [by] Chas. Brockden
Brown6 [/] first of his I ever read (got a set of his books from McKay7 more than a year ago but never
looked at them till now)—it is one of the most ghastly books conceivable, old
(Castle of ontranto)8 style. No doubt you have read some of Brown's books if not all
of them.9 [—] A gloomy but pleasant afternoon here
as I sit at my desk in my office and look out the window, roads very sloppy with the
melting snow. I hope you are prospering but I fear you are not to any marked
extent
Always your friend
R M Bucke
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. Horace Traubel's note,
"see | notes | April 5 | 1889 | [mutilation]," appears in the upper left-hand
corner of the recto. The note refers to Horace Traubel, With
Walt Whitman in Camden, Friday, April 5, 1889. [back]
- 2. William John Gurd (1845–1903)
was Richard Maurice Bucke's brother-in-law, with whom he was designing a gas and
fluid meter to be patented in Canada and sold in England. Bucke believed the
meter would be worth "millions of dollars," while Whitman remained skeptical,
sometimes to Bucke's annoyance. In a March 18,
1888, letter to William D. O'Connor, Whitman wrote, "The practical
outset of the meter enterprise collapsed at the last moment for the want of
capital investors." For additional information, see Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, March 17, 1889, Monday, March 18, 1889, Friday, March 22, 1889, and Wednesday, April 3, 1889. [back]
- 3. Bucke is referring to
Danbury, Connecticut. [back]
- 4. 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]
- 5. Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland (1798), a novel of religious fanataicism,
scandal, and murder, is the story of Clara Wieland and her brother Theodore and
the tragic events that befall their family. [back]
- 6. Charles Brockden Brown
(1771–1810) was an American writer who authored novels, short stories, and
essays. His novels include Wieland (1798) and Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleep-Walker
(1799). [back]
- 7. David McKay (1860–1918) took
over Philadelphia-based publisher Rees Welsh's bookselling and publishing
businesses in 1881–82. McKay and Rees Welsh published the 1881 edition of
Leaves of Grass after opposition from the Boston
District Attorney prompted James R. Osgood & Company of Boston, the original publisher,
to withdraw. McKay also went on to publish Specimen Days &
Collect, November Boughs, Gems
from Walt Whitman, Complete Prose Works,
and the final Leaves of Grass, the so-called deathbed edition. For
more information about McKay, see Joel Myerson, "McKay, David (1860–1918)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 8. The Castle of
Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole is often regarded as the first Gothic
novel. It details the story of Manfred, lord of the castle, and the adventures
of his family, and introduces many Gothic plot elements, such as secret passages
and portraits that move. [back]
- 9. See Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Friday, April 5, 1889. [back]