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54 Manchester Road
Bolton
England
June 11th 1891
My Dear, Good Old Friend,
Yesterday was a real Jubilee day with us here, for the American
mail brought us a good long letter from you1 with a copy of your latest
portrait, a paper (Camden Post) from you and
a good long letter & a paper from Warry2 for all of which we now desire to
return our warmest heartfelt thanks to you both The letters were the
loc.02486.002_large.jpg more welcome because
they came sooner than we expected them.
That you should have taken the trouble to write to us on the morning
after your Birthday,3 when you must have been suffering from the exhaustion consequent upon
the excitement of the previous evening, affects us very profoundly: and I am personally
proud of the honour of being entrusted with the privilege of facsimile-ing & distributing your letter to your friends
upon both sides of the Atlantic—
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I accept the commission with genuine pleasure but as
I am rather busy at present I have asked a friend to copy
the letter for me & I hope to be able to send you some copies by the mail, tomorrow night.
It was to us a matter of rejoicing that your Birthday Party was such an unqualified success
How it must have gladdened your heart to see so many of your dear & familiar friends
around you!—Dr. Bucke4 Dr. Longaker,5 Horace
Traubel6 & his bride7 (married in your room,
Warry tells us) Talcott Williams,8
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David McKay,9 Dr Brinton10 & the others whose names we read in the Camden Post—while
of the many messages of congratulation and cheer which flowed to you that day none would be more welcomed
than the "short & sweet" letter from Tennyson11—"the boss of you all," as you call him.12
But glad as we are to hear of the success of the Party—we are more than glad to learn that it had not apparently
had any very serious after bad effects upon you, tho' these might not
be apparent at the time
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of writing.
Warry says that you seemed to be better on the evening following your birthday than you
had been for two months. We accept this as a propitious omen—coming on the first day of your
73rd year—& devoutly do we hope that this improvement, if real, may continue; that your journey, commenced thus
auspiciously, may be favoured with every benign influence.
God grant that this may be so, my dearest & best of friends, & my life's Benefactor & Blessing!
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My best thanks to you, too, for your kind gift of the "mask" photograph. It is an
audacious thing,13 but a most striking likeness & altogether
an admirable piece of work which I shall prize very highly indeed.
I am having a facsimile made of it to give to each of the friends here. I shall send you one, too.
I hope you liked the Birthday Letter of the friends & the copy of my "Notes."14
June 13th, 1891
I have just received 12 copies of the facsimile letter—all that I could get today which I am
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distributing thus:—5 to you, & one each to H. L. Traubel, Dr
Bucke, John Burroughs15 Whittier,16
Tennyson, Symonds17 & J. W. Wallace18
By next mail I hope to have a good many more & intend sending a few more to you & one
each to the friends here, to Warry, Mrs
Davies ,19 Sloane Kennedy,20 Ed. Carpenter,21
Prof Dowden22 Ernest Rhys,23 Herbert
Gilchrist24 Andrew Rome25 & the other friends whose
names you formerly sent to me
I must again express my gratitude to you at being selected by you for the high honour of distributing
this "circular letter" of yours.
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We have been favoured with delightful weather here this week—cloudless blue skies, glorious
sunshine & mild, almost warm, breezes & the country is now looking at its best.
I enclose p.o.o. value 30p—in payment—or perhaps
part payment as I do now know the price—of these copies of "Good Bye"26 & the set of portraits27 I ordered.28
With kindest regards to Warry, Mrs Davis & Harry29 & fondest heart love to yourself now & always
I remain
yours affectionately
John Johnston
To Walt Whitman
P.S. I am sending Whittier a copy of your 1890 photo30 & of my "Notes"
JJ
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. Johnston is referring to
Whitman's letter of June 1, 1891. [back]
- 2. 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]
- 3. Whitman's seventy-second
(and last) birthday was celebrated with friends at his home on Mickle Street. He
described the celebration in his letter to Johnston of June 1, 1891: "We had our birth anniversary spree last evn'g —ab't 40 people, choice friends mostly—12 or so women—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]
- 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. Daniel Longaker
(1858–1949) was a Philadelphia physician who specialized in obstetrics. He
became Whitman's doctor in early 1891 and provided treatment during the poet's
final illness. Carol J. Singley reports that "Longaker enjoyed talking with
Whitman about human nature and reflects that Whitman responded as well to their
conversations as he did to medical remedies" ("Longaker, Dr. Daniel [1858–1949]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R.LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings [New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998]). [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]
- 7. Anne Montgomerie
(1864–1954) married Horace Traubel in Whitman's Mickle Street house in
Camden, New Jersey, in 1891. They had one daughter, Gertrude (1892–1983),
and one son, Wallace (1893–1898). Anne was unimpressed with Whitman's work
when she first read it, but later became enraptured by what she called its
"pulsating, illumined life," and she joined Horace as associate editor of his
Whitman-inspired periodical The Conservator. Anne edited
a small collection of Whitman's writings, A Little Book of
Nature Thoughts (Portland, Maine: Thomas B. Mosher, 1896). After
Horace's death, both Anne and Gertrude edited his manuscripts of his
conversations with Whitman during the final four years of the poet's life, which
eventually became the nine-volume With Walt Whitman in
Camden. [back]
- 8. Talcott Williams
(1849–1928) was associated with the New York Sun
and World as well as the Springfield Republican before he became the editor of the Philadelphia Press in 1879. His newspaper vigorously defended Whitman
in news articles and editorials after the Boston censorship of 1882. For more
information about Williams, see Philip W. Leon, "Williams, Talcott (1849–1928)," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 9. 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]
- 10. Daniel Garrison Brinton
(1837–1899) was a surgeon in the Union Army during the American Civil War
and then practiced medicine in Pennsylvania. He went on to become a professor at
the Academy of Natural Sciences, where he taught archaelogy and ethnology, and,
later, he worked as a professor of linguistics and archaeology at the University
of Pennsylvania. Whitman admired Brinton, who would speak at the poet's
funeral. [back]
- 11. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) succeeded
William Wordsworth as poet laureate of Great Britain in 1850. The intense male
friendship described in In Memoriam, which Tennyson wrote
after the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, possibly influenced Whitman's
poetry. Whitman wrote to Tennyson in 1871 or late 1870, probably shortly after the
visit of Cyril Flower in December, 1870, but the letter is not extant (see Thomas Donaldson,
Walt Whitman the Man [New York: F. P.
Harper, 1896], 223). Tennyson's first letter to Whitman is dated July
12, 1871. Although Tennyson extended an invitation for Whitman
to visit England, Whitman never acted on the offer. [back]
- 12. Johnston is referring to
Tennyson's letter to Whitman of May 14, 1891.
Tennyson had written the letter to wish Whitman a happy birthday. [back]
- 13. 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]
- 14. Johnston published (for
private circulation) Notes of Visit to Walt Whitman, etc., in
July, 1890. (Bolton: T. Brimelow & co., printers, &c.) in 1890.
His notes were also published, along with a series of original photographs, as
Diary Notes of A Visit to Walt Whitman and Some of His
Friends, in 1890 (Manchester: The Labour Press Limited; London: The
"Clarion" Office, 1898). Johnston's work was later published with James W.
Wallace's accounts of Fall 1891 visits with Whitman and the Canadian physician
Richard Maurice Bucke in Visits to Walt Whitman in
1890–91 (London, England: G. Allen & Unwin Ltd.,
1917). [back]
- 15. The naturalist John Burroughs
(1837–1921) met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After
returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a decades-long
correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman.
However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged,
curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or
devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and
Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting
the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs,
see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 16. John Greenleaf Whittier
(1807–1892) earned fame as a staunch advocate for the abolition of
slavery. As a poet, he employed traditional forms and meters, and, not
surprisingly, he was not an admirer of Whitman's unconventional prosody. For
Whitman's view of Whittier, see the poet's numerous comments throughout the nine
volumes of Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden
(various publishers: 1906–1996) and Whitman's "My Tribute to Four Poets,"
in Specimen Days (Philadelphia: Rees Welsh & Co.,
1882–'83), 180–181. [back]
- 17. 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]
- 18. 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]
- 19. 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]
- 20. William Sloane Kennedy
(1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also
published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on
the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander
Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman,
in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse
indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was
"too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February
1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 21. Edward Carpenter (1844–1929) was an English
writer and Whitman disciple. Like many other young disillusioned Englishmen, he
deemed Whitman a prophetic spokesman of an ideal state cemented in the bonds of
brotherhood. Carpenter—a socialist philosopher who in his book Civilisation, Its Cause and Cure posited civilization as
a "disease" with a lifespan of approximately one thousand years before human
society cured itself—became an advocate for same-sex love and a
contributing early founder of Britain's Labour Party. On July 12, 1874, he wrote for the first time to Whitman: "Because you
have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually
in my heart . . . . For you have made men to be not ashamed of the noblest
instinct of their nature." For further discussion of Carpenter, see Arnie
Kantrowitz, "Carpenter, Edward [1844–1929]," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 22. Edward Dowden (1843–1913), professor of
English literature at the University of Dublin, was one of the first to
critically appreciate Whitman's poetry, particularly abroad, and was primarily
responsible for Whitman's popularity among students in Dublin. In July 1871,
Dowden penned a glowing review of Whitman's work in the Westminster Review entitled "The Poetry of Democracy: Walt Whitman," in which Dowden described
Whitman as "a man unlike any of his predecessors. . . . Bard of America, and
Bard of democracy." In 1888, Whitman observed to Traubel: "Dowden is a book-man:
but he is also and more particularly a man-man: I guess that is where we
connect" (Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Sunday, June 10, 1888, 299). For more, see Philip W. Leon, "Dowden, Edward (1843–1913)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 23. Ernest Percival Rhys
(1859–1946) was a British author and editor; he founded the Everyman's
Library series of inexpensive reprintings of popular works. He included a volume
of Whitman's poems in the Canterbury Poets series and two volumes of Whitman's
prose in the Camelot series for Walter Scott publishers. For more information
about Rhys, see Joel Myerson, "Rhys, Ernest Percival (1859–1946)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 24. 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). [back]
- 25. Andrew Rome, perhaps with
the assistance of his brother Tom, printed Whitman's first edition of Leaves of Grass (1855) in a small shop at the
intersection of Fulton and Cranberry in Brooklyn. It was likely the first book
the firm ever printed. [back]
- 26. Johnston is referring to
Whitman's Good-Bye My Fancy (1891). Good-Bye My Fancy (1891) was Whitman's 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 2d Annex" to 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]
- 27. Whitman had planned to
publish a group of photographs of himself, but it was never issued. He often
discussed the project, which he considered calling "Portraits from life of Walt
Whitman," with Horace Traubel; see, for example. Traubel, With
Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, August 4, 1889. [back]
- 28. In his letter of June 10, 1891, Johnston ordered six copies of
Whitman's book Good-Bye My Fancy and a copy of "portraits
from life." [back]
- 29. Harry Fritzinger (about
1866–?) was the brother of Warren Fritzinger, who would serve as Whitman's
nurse beginning in October 1889. Harry worked as an office boy in Camden when he
was fourteen. He also worked as a sailor. Later, he became a railroad conductor.
Mary Davis, Whitman's housekeeper, took care of both Harry and Warren after the
death of their father, the sea captain Henry W. Fritzinger. Davis had looked
after Capt. Fritzinger, who went blind, before she started to perform the same
housekeeping services for Whitman. Harry married Rebecca Heisler on September
15, 1890. [back]
- 30. Johnston is referring to one
of the photographs he took in Camden in July 1890. See The
Walt Whitman Archive's Image Gallery for the three photographs of
Whitman and his nurse Warren Fritzinger (zzz.00117, zzz.00118, and zzz.00119). [back]