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London, Ontario, Canada1
22 Sept 18912
Dear Walt,
Your kind postal of the 20th to hand this afternoon.3
I am glad to hear that you keep fairly well, & hope that
this long spell of perfect weather will brace you up for the winter.—
To the theatre last night in the wagonette—9 of us altogether.—Beautiful
evening warm & genial—moonlight
coming back—Pretty theatre, with full house of well dressed
& good looking people. Quite
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enjoyed my dissipation, & feel no worse for it!
Spent most of today about here—in Dr's4 office,
in summer house, or on verandah scribbling
&c—Had a drive with Dr. to
town @ 4.30—Most beautiful evening—sunset radiant, calm, serene, & pure.
Have now pretty well settled as to my next move. On Thursday I go for the day to Forest5
to visit an aunt6 of Dr Johnston's.7 On
Monday afternoon I leave here for Toronto,
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next morning I go on to Fenelon Falls—(Fenelon Lake—some distance east of
Lake Simcoe). My old friend Fred Wild8 went
out there when a youth of 20 & stayed there some months.
So I am going there for his sake. Will
spend a day or two there,—then go on some 60 miles or so to
Haliburton to visit some friends9 of his—And, of course, I
hope to see a little of the Canadian backwoods this way.
Then, somehow; (not yet decided) to New York & and Brooklyn.
I write this in the Library—Dr., his brother,10 & W.J.G.11
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at office.
Quite a long good letter from H.L.T.12 this afternoon. He is a wonderfully good fellow.
I quite feel (& I know that our Bolton friends13 do so)
that he is a natural mate of ours, notwithstanding the differences that may exist
between us. But I wish he would save himself a little more!
Love to you, our supreme friend—
supreme in love, in tender sympathy & consideration. Love to you,
always, & heartfelt sympathy & blessing.
May the great Comrade be with you, & bless you, in deepening degree.
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. It is postmarked: LONDON | AM | SP 23 | 91 | CANADA; CAMDEN, N.J.
| SEP 25 | 6AM | 91 | REC'D. [back]
- 2. When Wallace wrote this
letter, he was visiting the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke at Bucke's
home in London, Ontario, Canada. Wallace had traveled to the United States from
Bolton, England, landing at Philadelphia on September 8, 1891 (Horace Traubel,
With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, September 8, 1891). After spending a few days with Whitman,
Wallace traveled with Bucke to Canada, where he met Bucke's family and friends.
Wallace's accounts of his travels were later published with the Bolton physcian
John Johnston's account of his own visit with the poet in the summer of 1890 in
their book Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–91
(London, England: G. Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1917). [back]
- 3. This postal card has not been
located. [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. Forest is a community in
Lambton Shores, Ontario, near Sarnia. [back]
- 6. As yet we have no information about
this person. [back]
- 7. 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). [back]
- 8. Fred Wild (d. 1935), a
cotton waste merchant, was a member of the "Bolton College" of Whitman admirers
and was also affiliated with the Labour Church, an organization whose socialist
politics and working-class ideals were often informed by Whitman's work. A
painter and scholar of Shakespeare, he was also a lively debater. With James W.
Wallace and Dr. John Johnston, Wild formed the nucleus of the Bolton Whitman
group. For more on Wild and Whitman's Bolton disciples, see Paul Salveson, "Loving Comrades:
Lancashire's Links to Walt Whitman,"
Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 14.2 (1996),
57–84. [back]
- 9. As yet we have no information
about these people. [back]
- 10. Bucke had five brothers,
three of whom became doctors, but it is not clear which brother Wallace is
referring to here. [back]
- 11. William John Gurd (1845–1903)
was Richard Maurice Bucke's brother-in-law, with whom he was designing a gas and
fluid meter to be patented in Canada and sold in England. Bucke believed the
meter would be worth "millions of dollars," while Whitman remained skeptical,
sometimes to Bucke's annoyance. In a March 18,
1888, letter to William D. O'Connor, Whitman wrote, "The practical
outset of the meter enterprise collapsed at the last moment for the want of
capital investors." For additional information, see Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, March 17, 1889, Monday, March 18, 1889, Friday, March 22, 1889, and Wednesday, April 3, 1889. [back]
- 12. 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]
- 13. The "Bolton College" was a
group of Whitman admirers located in Bolton, England. Founded by Dr. John
Johnston (1852–1927) and James William Wallace (1853–1926), the
group corresponded with Whitman and Horace Traubel throughout the final years of
the poet's life. 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). 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]