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54 Manchester Road
Bolton, England
June 6th 1891
Just a line or two to send my loving salutation & cordial greeting to you, my
dear, good old friend & to thank you for the good letter you so kindly sent to
Wallace1—a facsimile of which he kindly made &
forwarded to me.2
Sorry indeed were we to learn that your condition at the time loc.02483.002_large.jpg of writing (May 23rd) was "the
same continued, bad, bad enough."3
In spite of the continued ill reports we keep on hoping for the best.
Meanwhile we take every opportunity of writing to assure you of our heartfelt
sympathy & affectionate solicitude for your welfare.
Alas that we can do nothing more!
Our best thanks to you too for kindly promising to send us a copy of that audacious photo.4 We are curious to know what it is &
to see it
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This morning I recd a letter from Mr Stead5 (Editor of the Review of Reviews)6 in which he says: "I was not able to get the portrait
in this month but I shall be delighted in noticing "GoodBye My Fancy7" to use the portrait of Walt Whitman on Camden Wharf."8
I intend lending him the copy of "Good Bye" that you kindly
sent to us in case he has not yet seen the book.
I send you the third & concluding part of "Academy Pictures"9 by this mail
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Pardon my writing more at present. I have had a fearfully busy week with Influenza
cases—I have had a touch of the disease my self lately—and my
horse—truest & faithfullest of friends—has been nearly run off his
feet.
We are anxiously awaiting some report of your birthday10 proceedings
Please convey my kindest regards to Mrs Davis11 Harry12 & Warry13 Also to H. L.
Traubel14 when you see him
With best heart love to yourself I remain
Yours affectionately
J Johnston
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. Whitman wrote to Wallace on
May 28, 1891. Johnston may be referring to
receiving a facsimile of that letter. [back]
- 3. Johnston is referring to
Whitman's letter to Wallace of May 23,
1891. [back]
- 4. In May 1891, the sculptor
and educator Samuel Murray (1869–1941) accompanied another sculptor,
William O'Donovan (1844–1920) of New York, to Whitman's home in Camden,
New Jersey. Murray photographed Whitman in a profile
portrait, which Whitman referred to as "the most audacious thing in
its line ever taken" in his May 23, 1891, letter
to James W. Wallace. He again commented on the portrait's "audacity" (Horace
Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, May 19, 1891) and proudly described it as "an artist's
picture in the best sense" (With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Saturday, May 23, 1891). [back]
- 5. William Thomas Stead
(1849–1912) was a well-known English journalist and editor of The Pall Mall Gazette in the 1880s. He was a proponent of
what he called "government by journalism" and advocated for a strong press that
would influence public opinion and affect government decision-making. His
investigative reports were much discussed and often had significant social
impact. He has sometimes been credited with inventing what came to be called
"tabloid journalism," since he worked to make newspapers more attractive to
readers, incorporating maps, illustrations, interviews, and eye-catching
headlines. He died on the Titanic when it sank in
1912. [back]
- 6. 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]
- 7. Whitman's book Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) was his last miscellany, and it
included both poetry and short prose works commenting on poetry, aging, and
death, among other topics. Thirty-one poems from the book were later printed as
"Good-Bye my Fancy" in Leaves of Grass
(1891–1892), the last edition of Leaves of Grass
published before Whitman's death in March 1892. For more information see, Donald
Barlow Stauffer, "'Good-Bye my Fancy' (Second Annex) (1891)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 8. Johnston is referring to the
photographs he took in Camden in July 1890. See The Walt
Whitman Archive's Image Gallery, especially the three photographs of
Walt Whitman and his nurse Warren Fritzinger (zzz.00117, zzz.00118, zzz.00119). [back]
- 9. This enclosure has not been
located. [back]
- 10. Whitman's seventy-second
(and last) birthday was celebrated with friends at his home on Mickle Street. He
described the celebration in a letter to Dr. John Johnston, of Bolton, England,
dated June 1, 1891: "We had our birth anniversary
spree last evn'g —ab't 40 people, choice friends mostly—12 or so women—[Alfred,
Lord] Tennyson sent a short and sweet letter over his own sign manual . . . lots
of bits of speeches, with gems in them—we had a capital good
supper." [back]
- 11. 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]
- 12. Walt Whitman met the
18-year-old Harry Lamb Stafford (1858–1918) in 1876, beginning a
relationship which was almost entirely overlooked by early Whitman scholarship,
in part because Stafford's name appears nowhere in the first six volumes of
Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden—though
it does appear frequently in the last three volumes, which were published only
in the 1990s. Whitman occasionally referred to Stafford as "My (adopted) son"
(as in a December 13, 1876, letter to John H.
Johnston), but the relationship between the two also had a romantic, erotic
charge to it. For further discussion of Stafford, see Arnie Kantrowitz, "Stafford, Harry L. (b.1858)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). Eva M. Westcott (1857–1939) was a teacher in
New Jersey. She married Harry Lamb Stafford on June 25, 1883, and together they
had three children. [back]
- 13. Frank Warren Fritzinger
(1867–1899), known as "Warry," took Edward Wilkins's place as Whitman's
nurse, beginning in October 1889. Fritzinger and his brother Harry were the sons
of Henry Whireman Fritzinger (about 1828–1881), a former sea captain who
went blind, and Almira E. Fritzinger. Following Henry Sr.'s death, Warren and
his brother—having lost both parents—became wards of Mary O. Davis,
Whitman's housekeeper, who had also taken care of the sea captain and who
inherited part of his estate. A picture of Warry is displayed in the May 1891
New England Magazine (278). See Joann P. Krieg, "Fritzinger, Frederick Warren (1866–1899),"
Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), 240. [back]
- 14. 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]