Camden
Sunday PM
Oct: 21 '881
Again "the same subject continued"—decidedly cold to-day—a good fire
needed—I ate a good breakfast of stew'd chicken, brown bread, a roast apple
& chocolate ab't 10—am writing & reading a little—friendly
notices of Nov: B.2 in Bost: Transcript (by Kennedy)3—& in to-day's
Phila: Press (I don't know who)4—Probably you have got them sent you—if not say when you write & I
will send—a friendly two or three sticks' full in N Y Herald three weeks
ago5—did you get it? mostly ab't E Hicks6—I suppose you got Mary Costelloe's7 letter to me, I had forwarded you—
No Ostler8 now over a week (is that a good sign of his
verdict on me?)—bowel movements fair—no hitch in the progress of the big
book,9 but slow—my dull indomitable inertia of body & brain tyrannic as
ever—This enc: f'm Critic just rec'd—I have
ans'd—sh[or]t letter may appear in next C10—
Walt Whitman
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:
Dr R M Bucke | Asylum | London | Ontario | Canada. It is postmarked: Camden (?)
| Oct 21 | 5 PM | 88. [back]
- 2. Whitman's November Boughs was published in October 1888 by Philadelphia
publisher David McKay. For more information on the book, see James E. Barcus
Jr., "November Boughs [1888]," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. William Sloane Kennedy
(1850–1929) was on the staff of the Philadelphia American and the Boston Transcript; he also
published biographies of Longfellow, Holmes, and Whittier (Dictionary of American Biography [New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933], 336–337). Apparently Kennedy called on
the poet for the first time on November 21, 1880 (William Sloane Kennedy, Reminiscences of Walt Whitman [London: Alexander
Gardener, 1896], 1). Though Kennedy was to become a fierce defender of Whitman,
in his first published article he admitted reservations about the "coarse
indecencies of language" and protested that Whitman's ideal of democracy was
"too coarse and crude"; see The Californian, 3 (February
1881), 149–158. For more about Kennedy, see Katherine Reagan, "Kennedy, William Sloane (1850–1929)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 4. According to Traubel, the
review in the Press was written by Melville Philips. See
Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, October 21, 1888. [back]
- 5. See Whitman's September 18–19, 1888, letter to Richard
Maurice Bucke. [back]
- 6. Elias Hicks
(1748–1830) was a traveling Quaker preacher and anti-slavery activist from
Long Island, New York. Whitman's long essay on Hicks appeared in November Boughs. For more on Hicks, see Henry Watson
Wilbur, The Life and Labors of Elias Hicks (Philadelphia:
Friends' General Conference Advancement Committee, 1910). [back]
- 7. Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe
(1864–1945) was a political activist, art historian, and critic, whom
Whitman once called his "staunchest living woman friend." A scholar of Italian
Renaissance art and a daughter of Robert Pearsall Smith, she would in 1885 marry
B. F. C. "Frank" Costelloe. She had been in contact with many of Whitman's
English friends and would travel to Britain in 1885 to visit many of them,
including Anne Gilchrist shortly before her death. For more, see Christina
Davey, "Costelloe, Mary Whitall Smith (1864–1945)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 8. Hamlin Garland
(1860–1940) was an American novelist and autobiographer, known especially
for his works about the hardships of farm life in the American Midwest. For his
relationship to Whitman, see Thomas K. Dean, "Garland, Hamlin," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). Whitman sometimes
misspells or is inconsistent in his spellings of the names of William Osler, his
doctor, and Hamlin Garland. He writes "Ostler" when he means "Osler" and refers
to Garland as "Harland." [back]
- 9. Whitman wanted to publish a "big
book" that included all of his writings, and, with the help of Horace Traubel,
Whitman made the presswork and binding decisions for the volume. Frederick
Oldach bound Whitman's Complete Poems & Prose (1888),
which included a profile photo of the poet on the title page. The book was
published in December 1888. For more information on the book, see Ed Folsom, Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman: A Catalog and
Commentary (University of Iowa: Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, 2005). [back]
- 10. In a form letter on October 19, 1888, J. L. and J. B. Gilder of The Critic asked for Walt Whitman's "answer to the
question raised by Mr. Edmund Gosse in his paper in the October Forum, entitled
'Has America Produced a Poet?'—the question, namely, whether any American
poet, not now living, deserves a place among the thirteen 'English inheritors of
unassailed renown.'" Walt Whitman sent his reply on October 20, 1888, which J.
B. Gilder acknowledged on November 17, 1888
(Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Sunday, November 18, 1888). Whitman's response was published in the
November 24, 1888, Critic, along with responses by many
other writers (including John Greenleaf Whittier, John Burroughs, Francis
Parkman, and Julia Ward Howe). See also Traubel, With Walt
Whitman in Camden, Monday, October 22, 1888. [back]