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Camden
April 14 '891
Fine sunny weather—nothing special in my health—(if any difference am
suffering less from the join'd "cold in the head" &
constipation firm)—am sitting here in the big chair—have been trying to
eke out a two-page preface for the new reprint of Backw'd Glance of 70th y'r ed'n L
of G.2 & shall send off to the printer what I have,
hit or miss—
—Sleep at night pretty well—appetite poor—Did you get the
letter3 (via O'C)4 containing
Stedman's?5—Have not heard
from O'C for a week—am a little anxious—Harned6
& Mrs. H7 here & little Tom—Horace8 faithful as always—Ed9 all
right—the doctors all abstinent—havn't had a call for two
months—Signs of spring—longer days—presents of little bunches of
flowers—had a letter from our friend R P Smith10—England (enclosed)—The letter from Kennedy also enclosed11—I have made no answer or opinion to him ab't
it—
God bless you & all—very partial sort o' restricted bowel actions, ab't
every other day—seem natural—took a calomel powder night before
last—often the Frederichshall water12—
Walt Whitman
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March 31 1889
NATIONAL LIBERAL CLUB
WHITEHALL PLACE. S. W.
My dear friend,
I was glad to hear by your postal that you are getting along without an increase of
suffering. I wish that we all were near you, if so be that we might make an
occasional hour brighter for you & contribute to your exterior comforts. I see no
time to be fixed for our return. Alys13 proposes to go to
Bryn Mawr College in September & then will visit you. She will return to us if all
is well in June 1890 with her diploma in her pocket.
She, with her mother,14 a niece & myself have been
wandering loc_jc.00204_large.jpgthis
winter through Paris, Marseilles, the paradise of Nice and the Riviera, Rome,
Florence, Venice, Milan, Switzerland & home escaping thus
the melancholy skies of London with its "pea soup" smoky
atmosphere.
Logan15 is doing well at his college at Oxford & is
studying faithfully in his vacation at home.
Mary's second daughter,16 3 weeks old, opens new hopes &
joys—but through much suffering. Her husband17 is in the
new London City Council and is becoming prominent in abilities & in his profession
as a barrister.
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My old enemy "melancholia" spreads its vampire wings still over my life and will I
presume go with me to the end. I take it quietly, as a physical disease simply &
live on remembering the phrase—"Its dogged that does it."
So I have not much to tell. Yet it is fun to be in the midst of this great fermenting
intense life of London as an on looker.
I see with interest that you have issued a complete edition18 of your writings. You
have many, many devoted friends in England among loc_jc.00206_large.jpgthoughtful people who would delight
to see you here.
Good bye, dear old friend,—Write me when your spirit moves you & tell me how
you are.
With love from our children I am always
Yours affectionately
Robert Pearsall Smith
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Belmont Mass
April 8 89
Dear W. W.
With yr welcome card19 came to-night a letter fr. Gardner of Paisley,20 accepting my MS. "Walt Whitman the Poet of Humanity." He is
going to pub. in 2 vols. Is evidently enthusiastic. The poltroon, however,(!) wants me to cut
out the censor's list of objectionable passages. I don't really know that they are
essential,—guess
I'd better let him. I suppose his idea is that people will buy L. of G. more if they
are not given the passages in question in my book. He bites hard—says "it wd
be a vast pity if the book were to fall through," owing to my obstinacy I suppose he
means. I shall satisfy him. Have written him to leave those out.
I too have a terrific cold in head. Am deaf in one ear
temporarily, through sitting by open window (necessarily) where I work. But it is
nothing. Wax in ear only.
We are having house painted. Do hope you will get over that cold, dear Walt. Thank
you for the news fr. O'C. the Transcripts21 are so thin I am ashamed to send 'em half the time. But it
is little trouble, & you can throw them on the floor when you get sick of em. Remembrances to
Traubel &c. It does one good to think of Dr. Bucke.
One well man at least, ha, ha, thank God for 'em those hearty
"fellers." I take great delight in dogs for same reason.
W. S. Kennedy
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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. | Apr 14 | 5 PM | 89; London | AM | AP 16 | 89 | Canada. [back]
- 2. In celebration of his seventieth
year, Whitman published the limited and autographed pocket-book edition of Leaves of Grass, a volume which also included the annex
Sands at Seventy and his essay A
Backward Glance O'er Traveled Roads. [back]
- 3. Whitman is referring to
his April 8, 1889, letter to William Sloane
Kennedy, William Douglas O'Connor, and Richard Maurice Bucke. He sent
instructions with this letter that directed Kennedy to send the letter and its
enclosure to Ellen O'Connor (wife of William D. O'Connor), and then the
O'Connors were to send the letters to Bucke. The enclosure Whitman sent with the
letter was a March 27, 1889, letter that he had
received from the writer and editor, Edmund Clarence Stedman. [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. Edmund Clarence Stedman
(1833–1908) was a man of diverse talents. He edited for a year the Mountain County Herald at Winsted, Connecticut, wrote
"Honest Abe of the West," presumably Lincoln's first campaign song, and served
as correspondent of the New York World from 1860 to 1862.
In 1862 and 1863 he was a private secretary in the Attorney General's office
until he entered the firm of Samuel Hallett and Company in September, 1863. The
next year he opened his own brokerage office. He published many volumes of poems
and was an indefatigable compiler of anthologies, among which were Poets of America, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1885) and A Library of American Literature from the Earliest
Settlement to the Present Time, 11 vols. (New York: C. L. Webster,
1889–90). For more, see Donald Yannella, "Stedman, Edmund Clarence (1833–1908)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 6. Thomas Biggs Harned
(1851–1921) was one of Whitman's literary executors. Harned was a lawyer
in Philadelphia and, having married Augusta Anna Traubel (1856–1914), was
Horace Traubel's brother-in-law. For more on him, see Dena Mattausch, "Harned, Thomas Biggs (1851–1921)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). For more on his relationship with Whitman, see
Thomas Biggs Harned, Memoirs of Thomas B. Harned, Walt
Whitman's Friend and Literary Executor, ed. Peter Van Egmond (Hartford:
Transcendental Books, 1972). [back]
- 7. Augusta Anna Traubel Harned
(1856–1914) was Horace Traubel's sister. She married Thomas Biggs Harned,
a lawyer in Philadelphia and, later, one of Whitman's literary executors. [back]
- 8. 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]
- 9. Edward "Ned" Wilkins
(1865–1936) was one of Whitman's nurses during his Camden years; he was
sent to Camden from London, Ontario, by Dr. Richard M. Bucke, and he began
caring for Whitman on November 5, 1888. He stayed for a year before returning to
Canada to attend the Ontario Veterinary School. Wilkins graduated on March 24,
1893, and then he returned to the United States to commence his practice in
Alexandria, Indiana. For more information, see Bert A. Thompson, "Edward
Wilkins: Male Nurse to Walt Whitman," Walt Whitman Review
15 (September 1969), 194–195. [back]
- 10. Robert Pearsall Smith
(1827–1898) was a Quaker who became an evangelical minister associated
with the "Holiness movement." He was also a writer and businessman. Whitman
often stayed at his Philadelphia home, where the poet became friendly with the
Smith children—Mary, Logan, and Alys. For more information about Smith,
see Christina Davey, "Smith, Robert Pearsall (1827–1898)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 11. Whitman is referring to the
two enclosures he included with this letter to Bucke: the March 31, 1889, letter Whitman received from
evangelical minister Robert Pearsall Smith and the April
8, 1889, letter he had receved from William Sloane Kennedy. Whitman
responded to Kennedy on April 16, 1889, and he
mentions having received Smith's letter in his April 19,
1889, letter to Mary Smith Costello, the daughter of Robert Pearsall
Smith. [back]
- 12. Friedrichshall water is a
purgative mineral water from springs located near Heidelberg, Germany. It was
one of several mineral waters commonly used in the late nineteenth century to
treat constipation. (See C. R. C. Tichborne, The Mineral
Waters of Europe [London: Baillière, Tindall & Cox, 1883],
Chapter 3, "Chemistry of the Purgative Waters.") [back]
- 13. Alys Smith
(1867–1951) was a daughter of Robert Pearsall Smith and the sister of Mary
Whitall Smith Costelloe. She eventually married the philosopher Bertrand
Russell. [back]
- 14. Hannah Whitall Smith
(1832–1911) was a speaker and author in the Holiness movement in the
United States and the Higher Life Movement in Great Britain. She also
participated in the women's suffrage movement. She was the wife of Robert
Pearsall Smith and the mother of Mary, Alys, and Logan Pearsall Smith. [back]
- 15. Logan was the son of Robert
Pearsall Smith and Hannah Whitall Smith; for more about him, see Christina
Davey, "Smith, Logan Pearsall (1865–1946)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 16. Rachel ("Ray") Pearsall Conn
Costelloe (1887–1940) was the daughter of Mary Smith-Costelloe; she would
grow up to be a feminist writer and politician. [back]
- 17. Benjamin Francis Conn Costelloe
(1854–1899), Mary's first husband, was an English barrister and Liberal
Party politician. [back]
- 18. Whitman's Complete Poems & Prose (1888), a volume Whitman often referred to
as the "big book," 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 for the volume. Frederick Oldach bound the
book, 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]
- 19. Kennedy is likely referring
to Whitman's letter of April 7, 1889. [back]
- 20. Alexander Gardner (1821–1882)
of Paisley, Scotland, was a publisher who reissued a number of books by and
about Whitman; he ultimately published William Sloane Kennedy's Reminiscences of Walt Whitman in 1896 after a long and
contentious battle with Kennedy over editing the book. Gardner published and
co-edited the Scottish Review from 1882 to 1886. [back]
- 21. Kennedy and others published
a number of short pieces on Whitman in the Boston Evening
Transcript in 1888, and Kennedy sent copies to Whitman. [back]