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431 Stevens St.
Camden N J, U S A
Feb 12 '84
Dear Herb
Thanks for your affectionate letter—(thank your dear mother also for
hers—a most welcome one)1—Nothing special or
new to write about—health & every thing go on with me ab't as
usual—I enclose a piece of cloth2—cannot find a coat that I think would serve you,
(which is the garment I suppose you most want)—Dr Bucke3
has told me of a picture he got from you, he prizes immensely—I havn't seen
it—Write whenever you can, dear boy, & I will to you—
Walt Whitman
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Correspondent:
Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist
(1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter
and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro,
"Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. Herbert's letter is not
known. Apparently Whitman referred to Anne Gilchrist's letter of October 13–21, 1883. [back]
- 2. On January 26 Mrs.
Gilchrist asked Louisa Whitman for an old suit of Whitman's which would be of
use to her son for a painting entitled "The Poet's Tea Party," in which appeared
Whitman, Mrs. Gilchrist, Grace, and Herbert; see Amy Haslam Dowe, "A Child's
Memories of the Whitmans" (unpublished). See also the letter from Anne Gilchrist
to Walt Whitman of April 5, 1884. [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]