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Anderton, near Chorley
Lancashire, England1
9. Dec. 1891
Dear Walt,
Quite a beautiful afternoon as I write. After frequently
threatening rain, the sky has cleared up & for a little time
at least it promises to be fine. So in a few minutes I will walk
out to meet Fred Wild2 who sent me word he would come out
this aftn.
I had a letter from him this morning in which he told me that he
had written to you & to Dr Bucke.3 So
I suppose you will get
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his letter along with this.
I am almost clear of my "cold" now, only my long confinement
to the house has rather taken it out of me. And it makes it more
difficult for me to get properly acclimatised again. For the wet,
dull raw weather we are having here, with its variability,
storms & showers is a great change after the beautiful
weather we had over there.4
However, I shall soon be all right again. I don't know when I had
a cold that took such persistent hold
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as this one has done. But the fact is that I got 2 or 3 colds
in succession—first in the gale at sea & then in my
outdoor work in wretched weather.
I wrote to Dr Bucke & to Traubel's5 yesterday.
To the latter I have sent more detailed particulars of my voyage
& home coming—as requested by them—I wished afterwards
that I had written them to you, in case
they might interest you at all, but they hardly seemed worth
while at the time. And I have written in a microscopic hand that
is hardly readable.
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Horace reports that you remain pretty much as before.—Of course
our best wishes & love are with you anyway. And we hope to hear
pretty regularly, as heretofore how you are getting on.
I have not seen much of the "College" friends6 yet. They
had a meeting at Dixon's7 on Monday night (not well attended,
the weather being stormy) to discuss Bucke's "Mans Moral
Nature"8—Fred Wild leading the discussion. Dr. J.9
was there, & will doubtless mention it in writing to you.
I sent a letter as my contribution
to the talk.
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Horace says that you refer to my American trip sometimes as
"a triumph" for me. Anyhow it was a crowning good fortune.
It is very wonderful to me when I consider how little
I had to do with it, how it was shaped
& guided by external circumstances, & how intimately it
filled & crowned so much that had preceded. I felt all through
that, in old phrase, I was indeed led by the Spirit, & divinely
favoured.
It must be my care now to turn it to use. This my main aim & prayer.
But apart from these considerations I am glad to
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to remember that I have seen you face to face, & talked,
& eaten & drunk with you in the simplest human way.
Apart altogether from your books I have met you as
man with man, friend with friend. And its result has been to confirm
& strengthen all the bonds which bound me to you before,
& to deepen my personal love.—And more besides, yet
to be unfolded.
Please do give my kindest regards to Warry10 & to
Mrs Davis.11 With all
best wishes
Yours affectionately
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. | U.S.
America. It is postmarked: CHORLEY | N | DE 9 | 91; NEW YORK | DEC |
19; PAID | K | ALL; AD[illegible]GTON |
B | DE 9 | 91 | LANC; CAMDEN, N.J. | DEC 21 | 6 AM | 91 | [illegible]. [back]
- 2. 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]
- 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. Wallace visited both Whitman
and the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke in the fall of 1891. Dr. John
Johnston visited Whitman in the summer of 1890. Accounts of these visits can be
found in Johnston and Wallace's Visits to Walt Whitman in
1890–91 (London, England: G. Allen & Unwin, ltd., 1917).
Wallace discusses the significance of his time with Whitman, as well as his
return journey later in this letter. [back]
- 5. 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]
- 6. 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]
- 7. Wentworth Dixon
(1855–1928) was a lawyer's clerk and a member of the Bolton Whitman
Fellowship. [back]
- 8. Wallace is referring to
Richard Maurice Bucke's Man's Moral Nature: An Essay (New
York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1879). The book is dedicated to Whitman, and Bucke
writes in his introduction that one of his purposes in the work is to "discuss
the moral nature—to point out in the first place, its general relation to
the other groups of functions belonging to, or rather making up, the individual
man, and also its relations to the man's environment" (11). [back]
- 9. 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]
- 10. Frank Warren Fritzinger
(1867–1899), known as "Warry," took Edward Wilkins's place as Whitman's
nurse, beginning in October 1889. Fritzinger and his brother Harry were the sons
of Henry Whireman Fritzinger (about 1828–1881), a former sea captain who
went blind, and Almira E. Fritzinger. Following Henry Sr.'s death, Warren and
his brother—having lost both parents—became wards of Mary O. Davis,
Whitman's housekeeper, who had also taken care of the sea captain and who
inherited part of his estate. A picture of Warry is displayed in the May 1891
New England Magazine (278). See Joann P. Krieg, "Fritzinger, Frederick Warren (1866–1899),"
Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), 240. [back]
- 11. Mary Oakes Davis (1837 or
1838–1908) was Whitman's housekeeper. For more, see Carol J. Singley,
"Davis, Mary Oakes (1837 or 1838–1908)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]