The American Mail has not come in yet—delayed probably by the gales we are having. We look forward anxiously to its arrival, hoping that it will bring tidings of continued improvement & increasing strength.2
The wind is blowing "great guns" as I write, yesterday & today having been
very stormy, with showers of
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hail and rain.
Geo Humphreys3 came here on Saturday afternoon & spent the afternoon & evening with me. We spent most of the time reading & talking about you. I never had a more appreciative auditor. I read quite a lot aloud, including nearly all the Preface to the 1855 edition,4 & he seemed quite entranced, & thrilled as if he were receiving a succession of electric shocks.—I happened to have a reprint of the Preface (given me by Dr Bucke5) which I gave him.
I met a work mate of his the other week who told me
what a powerful influence Humphreys has on his mates.
"He has made new men of us" he said. He has gathered
quite a large group round him—nicknamed "the School"—with
whom he talks on social questions & incites to read—Carlyle6
for instance. He is the chief founder of what they call the
["]Co-operative Commonwealth" in Bolton—socialistic in theory
& aims—which began a few years
ago with a capital of 10s/- & & is now prospering wonderfully.
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Fifteen persons are regularly employed—weaving &c—including
a few women—& they are just purchasing new premises for which
they are paying £1900!
Humphreys is a very likeable fellow indeed—earnest
& active with a winning sympathy & kindliness of manner
very attractive to me. He is well read & thoughtful
& is a man I am heartily glad to be friends with.
I am sure that he will prove to be (as he has been in
the past) a centre of beneficial influence to many others. And
he is wonderfully advanced
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in his appreciation of L of G & his love for their author.
And he is "as proud as a dog with two tails" of the
copy you sent him.7
I had a brief letter from Carpenter8 yesterday. He is at York just now & very busy. He talks of coming here some time before long.
I was at Johnston's9 last night for a short time. He was quite well after a busy day. The rest of the friends10 are all well & moving along as usual.
It is a great joy to me to write to you again
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with a reasonable hope of your being able to read it.
Even if you do not read it it will serve as a token
of love & best wishes which are the same always & come
from my deepest heart.
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).