How can I thank you for all the tokens of your loving-kindness which you are so
constantly sending me? I cannot thank you enough but I can
at least shew you that I am grateful & appreciative of your bountiful generosity
by writing to you as often as possible & doing my little best to extend loc.02495.002_large.jpg your influence
& speak about you whenever opportunity offers. My latest convert to the
"brotherhood" is a working-man—a machine fitter—named George
Humphries1 who lives in a narrow side street, & who has
a genuine interest in you personally (through reading my "Notes"2) & I mean to
give him a copy of L. of G. one of these days.
The arrival of your good letter of June 27th,3 on July 8th your parcel of
photographs loc.02495.003_large.jpg on
the 9th & of the Lippencott proof4 this monrning has cheered me
& brightened these three days for me in a way that I cannot describe & I can
only say thanks, dear Friend & Master, a thousand thanks!
Your dear letter says that you were then "getting on fairly." Glad to hear that piece of good news.
God grant that at this moment you are still "getting on fairly" at least, though I
hope sincerely that loc.02495.004_large.jpg you are gaining strength & getting out into the open air a
little now & then, & we shall all rejoice when we hear of your doing
this.
What a grand selection of portraits you have sent me! And oh, how I prize them not only for their intrinsic value & interest but chiefly because they have come from you. But I fear that you must have despoiled yourself in parting with some of them. Thanks to you all the more for your munificent kindness!
Wallace5 called here for a few minutes last night, & shewed me your p.c. to him. I gave him the duplicates & a facsimile copy of your letter to me. I am having some of the portraits mounted; & as the large head is fading I shall copy it so as to preserve it. That & O'Connor's6 favourite are my favourites in the "budget"; but each of them is characteristically interesting & I like & value them all very much indeed.
You must have had a wonderfully smart stenographer "on the job" for such a graphic report of the Birthday "Spree"7 to have been sent to Lippincott.8
I read the proof over hurriedly & sent it on at once to Wallace & I could not but admire its fidelity & vivid portrayal of the actual event & much credit is due to H.L. Traubel9 & the reporter for so admirably reproducing & fixing the really able speeches & the interesting proceeding of that memorable evening.
I thank you most cordially for the complimentary reference to my "Notes" wh. you made & for all the good words you said about Wallace & the Boys. My only fear is that, after the laudation we have received, Dr Bucke10 will be disappointed when he sees us!
But I cannot refrain from here giving an extract from a letter I have just received from Wallace. He says:—
"I feel that in coming to see us he (i.e Dr B) does far more than pay us honour on
his own person I feel very strongly (whether loc.02495.008_large.jpg you will understand me & share
my feelings or not) that his visit like all our relations with Walt is a celestial
& priceless message of benison & cheer & hope from the Highest. I wish
to feel it a consecration too, to better effect in the
future to absorb & assimilate & put into practice the teaching &
influence of our beloved master and Friend."
Will you please kindly thank H.L.T. for his share in sending us the proof & tell him not to trouble about sending any of the magazines as we can get them here?
With kindest regards to Warry11 Harry12 & Mrs. Davis13 & to H.L.T. & with best love & gratitude to you always
I remain Yours affectionately J. JohnstonP.S In today's Athenaeum I notice a par. that next months Lippincott will contain "a poem by Mr Walt Whitman entitled "Good Bye My Fancy.""14
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).