I was very pleased and proud yesterday morning to receive the stitched copy of "Good Bye"1 you sent me, & the enclosed profile photo.
Of course I have seen Johnston's2 copy of "Good Bye," but I only
had it for one evening's hasty reading. So that I am very glad to have a copy that I
can read at leisure & absorb fully. loc_vm.01234_large.jpg And I am very proud to receive it
from you, my dearest friend & benefactor.
The profile photo. pleases me immensely. It's strong contrasts of black & white
(no half tones) & the peculiar disposition of the lights are very striking,
& give it a strange effect—as of a half materialized spirit (one of Ossian's ghosts—or some antique prophet) grand &
pensive, brooding over unfathomable mysteries, sad & tender. loc_vm.01235_large.jpg The majestic dome
of the head is better shewn than in any other portrait I have, & the noble
strength & tenderness of the expression are very fine. I shall treasure it while
I live as a precious addition to my other portraits of you.
Johnston sent me copies of your P.C. of June 6th & your
letter of June 9th3 (recd
today) I am glad to learn from the latter that you were "more free from excessive
lassitude." But I fear the results of the extreme heat reported from the States. loc_vm.01236_large.jpg I was very glad
to read Traubel's4 good & interesting letter.
I haven't seen Johnston for over a week!—the first time such a thing has happened since he returned from America. (I usually see him several times in a week.) But I have been very busy, & out of town a good deal, & when he has called on me I have been out.
I will send the sketches from Rivington by book post this mail.5 (Lent them to Greenhalgh6 tonight to show to one or two of the friends) I have numbered them in pencil on the back.
No 1—Painted at place referred to in two or three letters—(where we had our talk May 31st) Fairly good as a whole—Outline of Pike not satisfactory,—where shewn level it really rises by beautiful & subtle curves to buttress the main elevation—moorland hills to left not indicated—church too large &c.
(Three small lakes in all in line This the middle one—nearest here, the most beautiful of the three, & the one I usually visit & often walk round. Very inadequately represented by this one sketch)
No. 2 The lowest lake seen from just below the Village. This lake much the least interesting of the lot.
No. 3 Rivington Church sketched from the village green
No. 4 Sketch in Rivington village green on the left. Very pretty little village (about a dozen houses & cottages) but too scattered to be focussed into a picture.
The last three are sketched (as the above notes indicate) from points very near each
other. Cooper's7 time being very loc_vm.01239_large.jpglimited he couldn't get over the ground, so he had to do as he
best could, making his own selection of bits.(I choosing No. 1).
I wish I could send you a more representative lot of sketches of a bit of country
very dear to us—homely, unsophisticated, pure & sweet—a bit of old
world English country & country life left untouched by the swarming populations
& murky industries of Lancashire. Such as they are, however, loc_vm.01240_large.jpgI send them to you
with my love.
P.S. If Traubel fancies any of them I shall be glad to arrange with Cooper for a painting on his return from Norway. I wanted to send T. something & can think of nothing better. Bright warm summer weather.
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).