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Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 4 August 1888

About This Item

  • Title: Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 4 August 1888
  • Date: August 4, 1888
  • Creator(s): Richard Maurice Bucke
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.07218
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Jeannette Schollaert Ian Faith Caterina Bernardini Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Bucke, Richard Maurice. "Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 4 August 1888." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 14 September 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.07218.xml (TEI)
 loc_es.00276.jpg Superintendent's Office.1 
 ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE 
 LONDON. 
  ONTARIO 
 London, Ont., 4 Aug 1888

I have your card of 2d and am glad to hear both from yourself and Traubel2 that you hold your own. I am anxious for more proof—you will recollect that the last p. I have is 104—all the rest of the book3 will be new to me. I do not understand your plans about publishing, you say you may not publish for a while "for reasons." I think myself a good idea would be to print a hundred or two hundred copies on good (and large) paper, bind them nicely and sell yourself for $5. or even $10. with autograph, by & by publish through McKay or another. All well here, will soon write again, been extra busy lately

RM Bucke  loc_es.00277.jpg  loc_es.00274.jpg See notes Aug 6, 1888  loc_es.00275.jpg

Correspondent:
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).

Notes

  • 1. This letter is addressed: Walt Whitman | 328 Mickle Street | Camden | New Jersey | U.S.A. It is postmarked: LONDON | PM | AU 4 | 88 | CANADA; CAMDEN, N.J. | AUG | [illegible] | [illegible] | [illegible] | [illegible] . [back]
  • 2. 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]
  • 3. Bucke is referring to Whitman's November Boughs, which would be published in October 1888. [back]
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