A quiet, warm, dreamy, breezy, sunshiny, peaceful, Sabbath day—no sounds in the air but the sleepy buzzing of flies and the distant church bells—chapel is over and the folk mostly gone to church—I am off duty and putting in the morning in the office writing a batch of letters—have just written to Mrs Costelloe2—had a letter from her last evening—she says Mr Smith3 is now quite blind of one eye but can read with the other—she sends me a picture of Ray4 who seems to be thriving finely. I have begun my Annual Report am going to loc_es.00343.jpg make it pretty long this year—shall put in a lot about alcohol—results of its disuse at the Asylum and a discussion as to its mode of action upon the nerve centers. I shall be kept here pretty steady I guess until I get the Report off my hands, a month from now, after that if all be well it is quite possible I shall be East about the meter5 business—Should that go as we think it ought this may be the last annual report I shall write—but of course I say nothing about that at present.
Much love to you RM Bucke loc_es.00340.jpg See notes Sept 20, '88 loc_es.00341.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).