Richard Maurice Bucke to Walt Whitman, 24 April 1890
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Superintendent's Office
Asylum for the Insane Ontario London, Ont.,1 24 April 1890
I have your note of Sunday,2 enclosing letter from Barnard O'Dowd3 of Melbourne, Australia.4 Also your card of 22d5 and "Camden Post" of same date. I have read all with great interest. Have been from home a couple of days on asylum business that is why I am answering all in a lump—got home last ev'g. I guess "La Grippe" is still sticking to you—(she is the devil to stick)—and is making you feel miserable—but patience! (you used to have a good stock but must be getting toward the bottom of it I should think) the worst is over and the dregs of it will be run out in a little while now. Mrs Bucke6 and little Pardee7 got back home yesterday from their five weeks' visit in Sarnia with various friends there—I am happy to say
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they are both looking better for the rest and change. Nothing settled yet about my visit East but hope to leave (as mentioned before) about 12th May.8
Very pleasant weather here now—cool and bright—vegetation is coming forward quite slowly (as I like to see it—less likely to be cut back by frost)—
Love to you always R M Bucke
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see notes April 26 '90
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for Horace
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 | AP 24 | 90 | Canada; Camden, N. J. | Apr | 25 | 6PM | 90 | Rec'd. [back]
- 2. See Whitman's April 20, 1890, letter to Bucke. [back]
- 3. Bernard Patrick O'Dowd (1866–1953) was an Australian poet, lawyer, activist, and journalist. He and his wife, Evangeline Mina Fryer, began a weekly discussion club with secular and Whitmanesque inclinations called the Australeum. His letter of March 12, 1890, began a correspondence with Whitman that lasted until November 1, 1891, and assumed the character of a religious experience, always saluting Whitman with reverential appellations. For more, see Alan L. McLeod, "Whitman in Australia and New Zealand," J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings, eds., Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 4. It is uncertain which letter is being referred to here. [back]
- 5. See Whitman's April 22, 1890, postal card to Bucke. [back]
- 6. Jessie Maria Gurd Bucke (1839–1926) grew up in Mooretown, Upper Canada. She was the daughter of William Gurd, an army officer from Ireland. Gurd married Richard Maurice Bucke in 1865. The couple had eight children. [back]
- 7. Bucke is referring to his son, Edward Pardee Bucke (1875–1913). [back]
- 8. Bucke left London on May 12, 1890, for Cape May City, N.J. He remained in the United States until June 1, 1890. [back]