This is the paper Nov: Boughs2 is to be printed on—isn't it fine & thick? This is the (untrimm'd) size of page—the large book3 is thinner (same pulp) and a bittock4 larger—all those matters are going smoothly—
Ab't me in physical improvement, strength &c. the stuck condition continues—perhaps when the weather grows cooler, I may be better—but I don't know but I am failing to anticipate any essential change—Your good letters come daily—y'r suggestions &c. will if possible be followed—rec'd to-day a basket of pears from John Burroughs5—good weather—a rain in prospect—best wishes to the meter6—
Walt WhitmanCorrespondent:
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).