We had a terrible rainstorm here yesterday. Nearly as bad as our flood of 5 years ago this same month (July, 83). No great harm done however and this morning the air is clearer and brighter and fresher than ever. I got your card of 21st yesterday also a few more pp. of proofs2 (have the proofs now to p. 96). Surely you are a little on the mend—do you not think so? I do wish however you wd mend a little faster—it is slow and dull work for you I fear. We are well here, Mrs. B.3 &c &c still away (as I told you a few days ago) the little children at home very merry. All goes quietly at the Asylum. Not quite such hard work the last few days, am glad to have a little pause.
Your friend 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).