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Anderton, nr Chorley.
Lancashire, England1
3 July 1891.
My dear Walt Whitman,
I must content myself tonight with the briefest acknowledgement of receipt
of the 6 "Good Bye's"2 & the photographs.3—I am
delighted to have
these latter (5 of them new to me) & thank you most heartily for them.
I was detained in Bolton on business till the
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last train tonight, but Johnston4 came to the
station to see me & to show me a postcard recd
this afternoon from you.5 I see that Dr
Bucke6 is to sail on the 8th,
so we may expect to see him soon.7
We shall be heartily glad to do so, for your
sake as well as his own.
I expect Johnston here tomorrow afternoon (he has been too busy
to come for a long while) & if I can I will add a line
or two then.
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I am glad to learn from Traubel8 that you have
been distinctly better lately, & that the "birthday spree"9
seemed to give you a "peg up." But I wish to hear better news yet,
& to hear that you are getting out more.
Good night, & God bless you. With a heart full of love &
good wishes
Yours affectionately
J.W. Wallace
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Saturday, 4 July. 5.30 pm
Johnston, W Dixon,10
Mrs Dixon & little son here.11
All just come in for tea, & write this while waiting.
Have had a walk by the lake & sat for a time, at the place
of the view from which you have a picture.
A perfect day—the finest this
year—the air wonderfully clear, pellucid, &
sweet bright sunshine, cloud shadows dappling the wide expanse
of hills & moorland—All join in heartfelt love
to you . . Have been pressing on me the desire of the friends12
that I should come & see you (offering to pay my expenses)
which, however, I do not see my way to do.
Love to you always
J.W.W.
see notes July 17 1891
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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 | S | JY 4 | 91; BOLTON | S | JY 4 |
91; BOLTON | S | JY 4 | 91; NEW YORK | JUl | 3; A | 91; PAID | C | ALL; CAMDEN,
N.J. | JUL | 14 | 6AM | 1891 | REC'D. [back]
- 2. 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]
- 3. Whitman had planned to
publish a group of photographs of himself, but it was never issued. He often
discussed the project, which he considered calling "Portraits from life of Walt
Whitman," with Horace Traubel; see, for example. Traubel, With
Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, August 4, 1889. In a letter of June
10, 1891, Dr. John Johnston, the Bolton physician, increased Wallace's
previous order of two copies Whitman's book Good-Bye My
Fancy to six copies. Johnston and Wallace also each ordered copies of
"portraits from life." [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 probably
referring to Whitman's June 18, 1891, postal card
to Johnston. [back]
- 6. 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]
- 7. Bucke was preparing to
travel abroad to England, where he planned to establish a foreign market for the
gas and fluid meter he was building with his brother-in-law William Gurd. During
this trip he would also spend time with James W. Wallace and Dr. John Johnston,
the co-founders of the Bolton College of Whitman admirers, and visited the
English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. [back]
- 8. 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]
- 9. Whitman's seventy-second
(and last) birthday was celebrated with friends at his home on Mickle Street. He
described the celebration in a letter to Dr. John Johnston, of Bolton, England,
dated June 1, 1891: "We had our birth anniversary
spree last evn'g —ab't 40 people, choice friends mostly—12 or so women—[Alfred,
Lord] Tennyson sent a short and sweet letter over his own sign manual . . . lots
of bits of speeches, with gems in them—we had a capital good
supper." [back]
- 10. Wentworth Dixon
(1855–1928) was a lawyer's clerk and a member of the "Bolton College" of
Whitman admirers. He was also affiliated with the Labour Church, an organization
whose socialist politics and working-class ideals were often informed by
Whitman's work. Dixon communicated directly with Whitman only a few times, but
we can see in his letters a profound sense of care for the poet's failing
health, as well as genuine gratitude for Whitman's continued correspondence with
the "Eagle Street College." See Dixon's letters to Whitman of June 13, 1891 and February
24, 1892. For more on Dixon 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]
- 11. Mira (sometimes spelled
"Myra") Jane Gregory Gerrad (1857–1931) married Wentworth Dixon in 1878.
The couple were the parents of at least four children: Myra Dixon, Nora Dixon,
Wentworth Dixon, and Ellen Dixon. [back]
- 12. Wallace is referring to the
"Bolton College," a group of English admirers of Whitman, that he and the
English physician Dr. John Johnston co-founded. [back]