Camden1
Noon
Feb: 4 '89
An incipient "cold in the head" (from an open sash behind me two hours yesterday
toward evn'g forgotten)—may pass over lightly—may grow
worse—(generally of late seems to settle on, merge in bladder
trouble)—Otherwise matters much the same—partial bowel action (thankful
for that)—half sunny weather this forenoon, rather cold—The "Magazine of
Poetry" from you came—all looks better than I w'd have
anticipated—pictures, print, paper very fair—I see I appear quite
largely—good biographic sketch f'm y'r pen I accept & like well2—quite many names I had not heard
before—rather an apotheosis of good mediocrity isn't it? & why not?
Feb: 5 noon
Nothing special—I am sitting by the stove alone—partial bowel dejection
an hour ago—no letters rec'd this morn'g—sell two copies Nov: B3 to-day—I send papers & p[ost] cards to
O'C[onnor]4 every other day—nothing very late from
him—cloudy dark raw here like snow in prospect—
McKay5 is going off "on the road" (book selling &c) in ab't a
week—takes the new bound big book6" with him—wants of me, a formal pledge
that there will be no more complete works like this issued by
me—but I refuse—(altho' I feel confident there will not, yet I prefer to
keep it open)—I sell the C W to McK h'f calf bound for $4—so you see I
don't indeed make much—will soon send you a printed slip of the Sarrazin7 fragment as the proof from K[ennedy]8 has
come in the 2 p m mail.9 It seems but a fragment, but a typical one—Y'rs came
to-day.10 The sun is out shining at setting—
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,
N.J. | Feb. 5 | 8 PM | 89. [back]
- 2. The first issue of this
new journal had a lengthy notice (14–23), with a foreword by Bucke, Frank
Fowler's etching, and a photograph. [back]
- 3. Whitman is referring to his book
November Boughs, which was published in October 1888.
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]
- 4. William Douglas O'Connor
(1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet
The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866.
For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. David McKay
(1860–1918) was a Philadelphia-based publisher, whose company, founded in
1882, printed a number of books by and about Walt Whitman in the 1880s and
1890s, such as the 1891/1892 editon of Leaves of Grass,
Whitman's November Boughs, and Richard Maurice Bucke's
1883 biography of the poet. [back]
- 6. Whitman often referred to Complete Poems & Prose (1888) as his "big book." The
volume was published by the poet himself in an arrangement with publisher David
McKay, who allowed Whitman to use the plates for both Leaves
of Grass and Specimen Days—in December
1888. With the help of Horace Traubel, Whitman made the presswork and binding
decisions, and Frederick Oldach bound the volume, which included a profile photo
of the poet on the title page. 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]
- 7. Gabriel Sarrazin (1853–1935)
was a translator and poet from France who commented positively not only on
Whitman's work but also on Poe's. Whitman later corresponded with Sarrazin and
apparently liked the critic's work on Leaves of
Grass—Whitman even had Sarrazin's chapter on his book translated
twice. For more on Sarrazin, see Carmine Sarracino, "Sarrazin, Gabriel (1853–1935)," Walt Whitman:
An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 8. 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]
- 9. Whitman is referring to
Gabriel Sarrazin's "Poetes modernes de l'Amerique, Walt Whitman," which appeared
in La Nouvelle Revue, 52 (May 1, 1888), 164–184.
Whitman had asked both William Sloane Kennedy and Richard Maurice Bucke to make
an abstract in English of it (see Whitman's letter to Kennedy of January 22, 1889, and to Bucke of January 27, 1889). Sarrazin's piece is reprinted in
an English translation by Harrison S. Morris in In Re
(1893, pp. 159–194). [back]
- 10. Whitman is likely referring
to Bucke's letter of February 3, 1889. [back]