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Anderton, nr Chorley.
Lancashire, England1
21. July. 1891
My dear Walt Whitman,
I intended to write you a good long letter tonight for tomorrow's mail, but circumstances
quite prevent it. So I must content myself with a mere line or two of loving greeting &
continued good wishes.
Doubtless Johnston2 will send you a long account of Dr
Bucke's3 visit4 & Dr B will have sent you
his5
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But I must send you my version too at the first opportunity.6
Last week I got no proper opportunity of writing at all—to my great regret. So I
must write when I can.
It has not only been a great joy to me to see Dr Bucke face to face,
here in the room in which I write, & to talk with him about you,
but it has brought you still nearer to me & I feel yet more strongly
that we are friends indeed. And that is the crowning glory
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& privilege of my life, opening out vistas of sacred cheer & hope & purposes.
God bless you for all you have done for me & for the friends7 I love. And my deepest love to
you evermore.
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 | U.S. America. It is
postmarked: Bolton | 42 | JY22 | 91; New York | JUL | 31; Paid | E | All;
Camden, N.J. | AUG | 1 | 6AM | 1891 | REC'D. [back]
- 2. 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]
- 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. At this time, Bucke was
traveling abroad in England, where he attempted 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 also spent 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]
- 5. For Bucke's account of his visit with Wallace
and Johnston, see Bucke's July 18, 1891, letter to
Whitman. For Johnston's impressions of Bucke's visit, see Johnston's letter to
Whitman of July 18, 1891. [back]
- 6. See Wallace's letter to Whitman of July 23, 1891. [back]
- 7. 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]