loc.02470.001.jpg
54 Manchester Road
Bolton England
Mar 27th 1891.
My Dear Old Friend,
Sitting here on the evening of Good Friday—a general holiday—I thought I
wd give myself the pleasure of sending you a line or
two.
This morning I recd a letter from J.W.W.1 inviting me to spend
the afternoon with him & enclosing a facsimile of your kind p.c. of the 14th2 inst to him. Your reference
to his "affectionate fervid letter of Mar 3rd"3 which you had "read twice and absorbed" pleased him
greatly.
I have just returned from his house where our mutual friend Wentworth Dixon4—one
loc.02470.002.jpg of "the boys" & a splendid fellow—with his wife &
boy have also been spending the afternoon Leaving the boy—a fine sturdy
little chap—behind we all went for a two hours' walk through beautiful
Rivington, & much did I enjoy the pure, sweet and
exhilirating air, the lovely landscape picture & all the magnificent shows of earth
& sky—for today has been exceptionally splendid in its atmosphere
effects—great masses of sunlit fleecy clouds towering high into & scudding
across the deep blue empyrean. At times the entire sky became overcast & we had
blinding showers of snow & sleet which were swept along by the high wind like
flying wraiths
loc.02470.003.jpg or
mist-ghosts.
On the 25th the Bolton International Club had a "Whitman
Evening" when Fred Wild5 read a short paper & selections
from Ingersoll's6 Oration7 upon you.
The reading provoked a good deal of criticism—some of it very shallow—to
which Fred replied in a vigorous table speech. I also took part in the discussion,
read extracts from L. of G & shewed some of my "Whitman photos," post cards &c. The room was draped with
the flags of different nations—English, French, German, Swiss &c. Fred
also exhibited his just finished oil painting of an American mail steamer ploughing
her way through the moonlit
loc.02470.004.jpg heaving waters of the Atlantic. The picture wh' is really a fine
one was much admired.
On Monday evg last we had another Whitman reading at the College & we anticipate
a great treat upon Ap 10th when J.W.W. gives us his
address upon your 1855 Edition.
I am deeply sorry to hear that you have "no cheery or
favourable news" to send us about yourself—May the next be better!
God bless you my dear, old friend, & send you better times!
Please give my kindest regards to HLT8 & to all your
household. With fondest heart love to you I remain
yours affectonately
J Johnston
To Walt Whitman
P.S I send you this weeks' Literary World with a marked
par re J.A. Symonds.9—
Correspondent:
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).
Notes
- 1. 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]
- 2. See Whitman's March 14 postal card to Wallace. [back]
- 3. The letter is dated March
6th, not March 3rd. Whitman refers to it as a March 3rd letter in his March 14 postal card to Wallace. Only a typescript
of Wallace's March 6 letter survives. [back]
- 4. Wentworth Dixon
(1855–1928) was a lawyer's clerk and a member of the "Bolton College" of
Whitman admirers. He was also affiliated with the Labour Church, an organization
whose socialist politics and working-class ideals were often informed by
Whitman's work. Dixon communicated directly with Whitman only a few times, but
we can see in his letters a profound sense of care for the poet's failing
health, as well as genuine gratitude for Whitman's continued correspondence with
the "Eagle Street College." See Dixon's letters to Whitman of June 13, 1891 and February
24, 1892. For more on Dixon and Whitman's Bolton disciples, see Paul
Salveson, "Loving
Comrades: Lancashire's Links to Walt Whitman," Walt
Whitman Quarterly Review 14.2 (1996), 57–84. [back]
- 5. Fred Wild (d. 1935), a
cotton waste merchant, was a member of the "Bolton College" of Whitman admirers
and was also affiliated with the Labour Church, an organization whose socialist
politics and working-class ideals were often informed by Whitman's work. A
painter and scholar of Shakespeare, he was also a lively debater. With James W.
Wallace and Dr. John Johnston, Wild formed the nucleus of the Bolton Whitman
group. For more on Wild and Whitman's Bolton disciples, see Paul Salveson, "Loving Comrades:
Lancashire's Links to Walt Whitman,"
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 14.2 (1996),
57–84. [back]
- 6. Robert "Bob" Green Ingersoll
(1833–1899) was a Civil War veteran and an orator of the post-Civil War
era, known for his support of agnosticism. Ingersoll was a friend of Whitman,
who considered Ingersoll the greatest orator of his time. Whitman said to Horace
Traubel, "It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll, for he is
Leaves of Grass. He lives, embodies, the
individuality I preach. I see in Bob the noblest
specimen—American-flavored—pure out of the soil, spreading, giving,
demanding light" (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Wednesday, March 25, 1891). The feeling was mutual. Upon Whitman's
death in 1892, Ingersoll delivered the eulogy at the poet's funeral. The eulogy
was published to great acclaim and is considered a classic panegyric (see
Phyllis Theroux, The Book of Eulogies [New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1997], 30). [back]
- 7. John H. Johnston (of New
York) and Richard Maurice Bucke planned a lecture event in Whitman's honor,
which took place October 21 at Philadelphia's Horticultural Hall. Robert
Ingersoll delivered the lecture. See Ingersoll's October
12, 1890 and October 20, 1890, letters
to Whitman. Planning for the event had been underway for about a month. In his
letter to Whitman of September 17, 1890, Bucke
quoted a letter from Johnston: "This morning an hour talk with Ingersoll and I
got his promise and authority to proceed and get up a lecture entertainment by
him for Walt's benefit—in Phila I guess—Shall I put you on
committee?" [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]
- 9. John Addington Symonds
(1840–1893), a prominent biographer, literary critic, and poet in
Victorian England, was author of the seven-volume history Renaissance in Italy, as well as Walt
Whitman—A Study (1893), and a translator of Michelangelo's
sonnets. But in the smaller circles of the emerging upper-class English
homosexual community, he was also well known as a writer of homoerotic poetry
and a pioneer in the study of homosexuality, or sexual inversion as it was then
known. See Andrew C. Higgins, "Symonds, John Addington [1840–1893]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]