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London,
Ontario,
Canada1
19. Sep 1891
My dear Walt Whitman,
A lovely & perfect day here,2—air fresh & sweet with pleasant breezes.
Immediately after I wrote to you yesterday afternoon the sky became suddenly overspread
with stormclouds of wonderful beauty, & presently the rain began to pour & a
thunderstorm began.
It was all over by tea time & the evening was clear & beautiful—the
bursts of cumulus cloud on the Eastern horizon glowing with wonderful
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colours & effects as Dr3 & I walked across to the office in the evening.
A pleasant evening, with delightful talks with Dr. He showed me a letter from you. We were both very much
pleased to hear per H.L.T.4 of Dr. Longaker's5 report. Glad to hear, too, that the oculist's
report was favourable.
I have spent today very idly—giving the reins to my mood. But I have thoroughly enjoyed the perfect beauty
& freshness of the day.
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I was at the office a short time this morning & was very pleased to receive a parcel of papers addressed to me
by you. Thank you for your constant kindness & thought.
The Dr. showed me the copy of "The Literary World" rec'd from you, with the marked par. on "Good Bye"6
which I was pleased to read.7 Since dinner I have looked through the two papers you sent, &
dipped into the pamphlet on
"Swedenborg."8 This last, however, I will put aside
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for another time.
Dr. is calling for me at 3 o'clock to go to town, so I write this brief note in the
hope that I may post it there.
I hope that the day is equally beautiful with you, & that you are fairly well. How it would
please me to hear that you have been out for a drive again!
Give my affectionate regards to Mrs. Davis9 & Warry.10
With love to yourself as always
J.W. Wallace
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Correspondent:
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).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Walt Whitman, | 328, Mickle St | Camden | New Jersey |
US.. Wallace has written his intials "J.W.W." in the bottom left corner
of the recto of the envelope. It is postmarked: LONDON | PM | SP 19 | 91 |
CANADA; [illegible] | [illegible] 91 | REC'D. [back]
- 2. Wallace visited both Whitman
and Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke in the fall of 1891. When this
letter was written, Wallace was with Bucke at Bucke's home in London, Ontario,
Canada. Wallace's friend and the co-founder of the Bolton College group of
Whitman admirers, Dr. John Johnston, had visited Whitman in the summer of 1890.
Accounts of these visits can be found in Johnston and Wallace's Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–91 (London, England:
G. Allen & Unwin, ltd., 1917). [back]
- 3. 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]
- 4. 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]
- 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. 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]
- 7. Wallace may be referring to
the review of Good-Bye My Fancy that was published in The Literary World on September 12, 1891. [back]
- 8. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) was a Swedish
theologian and mystic who claimed himself as a divinely inspired Christian
reformer, rejecting the concepts of the Trinity and salvation through faith
alone. Swedenborg is best known for his 1758 book Heaven and
Hell, in which he describes his vision of the afterlife as divided into
three parts: Heaven, Hell, and a middle World of Spirits, where the recently
deceased first awaken into the afterlife. Swedenborgians established the New
Church in England after Swedenborg's death, a movement that spread to the U.S.
in the early nineteenth century. [back]
- 9. 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]
- 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]