Still very poorly—obstinate rigid horrible indigestion (now two months and over) at the bottom and base of all—wonder that I keep up as well as I do—all the poetic bits for the little 2d annex proof2 finished & sent in—printers now on the prose pages—all will be very brief & scrappy—a fair night past, considering—eat a little—drink Fred:' water3 every mn'g & have taken four powders no mark'd effect
WW loc_zs.00535.jpg loc_zs.00536.jpgCorrespondent:
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).