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Anderton, near Chorley.
Lancashire, England1
3. April 1891
My dear Walt Whitman,
My best thanks to you for your kind postcard of March 23rd.2—And also thanks to you for your
postcard3 to Dr
Johnston,4 received this week
By far the gladdest news we have received for many a day is that contained in your
latest communication (March 24th5);—"even a
suspicion of a shade easier, & the long horrible drain spell
being broken." God grant loc_vm.01148.jpg
that this may indeed be so! It is indeed "a consummation devoutly wished"6 by us,
& we shall look forward eagerly to further news confirming it. And yet I am
afraid (if the weather over there at all resembles the weather here) that we must
wait a little for any definite confirmation of it. But it
heartens us to look forward with more assured hope to the better weather coming,
when you will be able to get out again & to absorb the vitalizing influences of
the glad spring & summer.
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I cannot tell you how much we feel your unwearied kindness in sending us word of your
condition. Thanks to you from our deepest hearts.
Dr J. & I were both very much pleased in the beginning
of the week to receive letters from Traubel;7—full of
hearty friendliness & replete with interesting news.—Written at night with
other work (for the "Conservator"8) before him, they doubly evidenced his kindness
& good will. Nor were they less interesting to us as coming from one who is so
much about you, & as emanating loc_vm.01150.jpg indirectly (in a sense) from you too. Thanks to you both.
The weather here has been very stormy lately—yesterday & today especially
so. As I write a strong S. E. wind is blowing, with cold heavy rain.
Tomorrow (Saturday) I expect Fred Wild9 to spend the
afternoon with me—&, if the weather is better, perhaps Dr. J.
Hoping for better news, & with best love always,
I remain
Yous affectionately
J.W. Wallace
P.S. Will you give my affectionate regards to
Traubel?
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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, | U.S. America. It is
postmarked: Bolton | 41 | AP 4 | 91; PAID | H | ALL; [illegible]W[illegible] | Apr | 12. [back]
- 2. See Whitman's March 23, 1891, postal card to Wallace. [back]
- 3. See Whitman's March 24, 1891, postal card to Dr. John
Johnston. [back]
- 4. 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]
- 5. Wallace is referring to
Whitman's March 24, 1891, postal card to
Johnston. [back]
- 6. Wallace is referencing
Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1 of William
Shakespeare's play Hamlet. [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. Horace Traubel founded The Conservator in March 1890, and he remained its editor
and publisher until his death in 1919. Traubel conceived of The Conservator as a liberal periodical influenced by Whitman's poetic
and political ethos. A fair portion of its contents were devoted to Whitman
appreciation and the conservation of the poet's literary and personal
reputation. [back]
- 9. 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]