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54 Manchester Rd
Bolton
England1
Aug 22nd 1891
My Dear Walt Whitman,
Just a few lines to send you my love across the sea & a message of cheer
& joy with it.
You are much in our thoughts now amid the preparations for dear
JWW's2 departure next week.3 For by the time you receive this
you will know that he is coming to see you—nay, more,
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that he is going across the Atlantic on purpose
to see you, our dear good old friend
How I wish that I were going with him! But that is out
of the question & I am overjoyed at the thought that he is going
May God bless him, overshadow him with His Continual Presence, guard him
from all the perils of sea & land & bring
him safely back to me again!
Tis the first time that we have been
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separated so long for a great many years & I feel his departure very keenly.
But that feeling is at once swallowed up by the great thought that it is
you he is going to see—to us, the
supreme earthly friend, lover & comrade.
We have received the Camden Post for Aug. 7th with the
2nd article, upon Dr B's4 visit5 to us.6
What an enthusiast H.L.T7 is!
I blushed to see my poor scribblings, written off hurriedly & without
premeditation, arrayed in all the glory of printer's ink,
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& lauded by H L T's facile pen!
We are anticipating another good time on the evg of 24th with the Dr at
FRC Hutton's8
where he will stay for the night. & where we expect a goodly muster of the boys9
I hope you are keeping better & are freer from your physical discomforts.
My best love to you now & always!
God bless you!
Yours affectionately
J Johnston
PS Kindest regards to Warry10, Mrs Davis11
& to Harry.12
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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. This letter is addressed:
Walt Whitman | 328 Mickle St | Camden N.J | U.S.
America. It is postmarked: Bolton | 55 | AU22 | 91; Paid | N | All; New
York | AUG
[illegible] | [illegible]; Camden, N.J. | AUG 30 |
9A.M. | [illegible] | REC'D. Johnston
has written his initials, "JJ," in the bottom left corner of the front of the
envelope. [back]
- 2. 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]
- 3. In September 1891, Wallace
traveled to the United States, arriving at Philadelphia on September 8, 1891
(Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, September 8, 1891). Wallace's arrival was shortly preceded
by that of the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke, who had recently
returned from two months of travel in Europe, where he had spent time with
Johnston, Wallace, and the Bolton College group of English Whitman admirers.
Both Bucke and Wallace visited Whitman in Camden, and, after spending a few days
with the poet, Wallace returned with Bucke to London, Ontario, Canada, where he
met Bucke's family and friends. Wallace's account of his time with Whitman was
published—along with the Bolton physician John Johnston's account of his
own visit with the poet in the summer of 1890—in their memoir, Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–1891 by Two Lancashire
Friends (London: Allen and Unwin, 1917). [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. During the months of July
and August 1891, Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke traveled in England in an attempt to establish a foreign
market for the gas and fluid meter he was developing with his brother-in-law
William Gurd. While in England, Bucke spent time with Dr. John Johnston and
James W. Wallace, the co-founders of the Bolton College of Whitman admirers, and
visited the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. [back]
- 6. Johnston is referring to
Traubel's article, "Walt Whitman Abroad," Camden Post
(August 7, 1891), 1. Traubel's piece focuses on the warm reception Bucke
received from Johnston, Wallace, and the members of the Bolton College, as well
as the English admirers' reverence for Whitman. [back]
- 7. 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]
- 8. Reverend Frederick Robert
Chapman Hutton (1856–1926) was the Vicar of St. George's Church, Bolton,
and St. Paul's, Astley Bridge. [back]
- 9. Johnston is referring to the
"Bolton College," a group of English admirers of Whitman, that he and Wallace
co-founded. [back]
- 10. 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]
- 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. 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]