Your letter of 12th2 came to hand yesterday—Shall we soon have a chance of seeing the "Annex"—"Good bye My Fancy"?3 This then I suppose is to be the end of the glorious Leaves? Well they are pretty complete—I hardly know what could be added with advantage. Next thing will be to incorporate the two annexes into the body of the book so as to make of it what it is—a unit.
Have you seen Dr. Thomas4 yet? has he order'd glasses for you and have you got
them?5 I am anxious to know when you get and use your
new glasses and whether they do not make you more comfortable. As for that infernal
belly-ache6—lasting so long I hardly know what
to say about it
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Surely you must need some medicine and you could not go far wrong to take say six
grains of Calomel7 following it in about 8 hours with a good drink of
Friedrichshall8—unless you are a great deal better I advise you either to do
this or send for a doctor—there is no use suffering more than can be
helped.
I enclose a letter just came from Wallace9—want you to return it, the paper he speaks of has not yet come to hand—shall I send it to you when it does come?
We have had some days of magnificent indian summer weather—today is dark & cloudy but pleasant still
I hope for some more indian summer before the cold weather sets in
Love to you RM BuckeCorrespondent:
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).