Camden
April 6 '901
Still down sick—it holds on day & night—(well have they call'd it the grip)—I am sitting in my chair to write this, but I
feel more like lying down, & shall presently do so—I am quite sure nothing
serious or at all alarming—will probably blow over this coming week—No I
do not know either the origin nor purpose of the McDermot piece2 nor do I care a straw—I have sent you Dr Brinton's
fine monograph ab't Bruno3—(if you want one or two
more I can send them)—We are having quite a clientage among scientists &
doctors—a while ago it was actors & artists—Could not eat any
breakfast—drank a cup of near-hot milk—shall try to take a bowl of
chicken & rice soup at 4—pretty dismal with me—Warren4 is very good & kind & so Mrs: D[avis]5—Of course the massages are given up for the
present—two days ago (f'm weather & other reasons)—I sweat freely,
& was better offer—but these two current days are cold—
near 3 P M—have been lying down—up to finish this & send it
off—weak & miserable & phlegm-suffocated to an extreme—O the
beautiful bright clean sunshiny day & the young ones out in their pretty
clothes—
Love to all—
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 Bucke | Asylum | London | Ontario | Canada. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. |
Apr 6 | 5 PM | 90. [back]
- 2. Until letters from Bucke
between March 27 and April 14 surface, the allusion will remain a
mystery. [back]
- 3. Giordano Bruno: Philosopher and Martyr (1890) consisted of two
speeches before the Philadelphia Contemporary Club by Daniel G. Brinton
(1837–1899), a pioneer in the study of anthropology and a professor of
linguistics and archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, and by Thomas
Davidson (1840–1900), a Scottish philosopher and author. It included a
prefatory note by Whitman dated February 24, 1890 (see The
Collected Writings of Walt Whitman: Prose Works 1892, ed. by Floyd
Stovall, 2 vols. [1963–1964], 2:676–677). In his essay Brinton links
the poet with Bruno in his rejection of the "Christian notion of sin as a
positive entity" (34). On April 4, 1890, Whitman sent copies of the book to John
Addington Symonds, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Gabriel Sarrazin, T. H. Rolleston, and
W. M. Rossetti (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of
the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington,
D.C.). See also Whitman's April 11, 1890, letter
to Bucke. After the poet presented him with a copy of Complete
Poems & Prose, Brinton expressed his thanks effusively on April 12, 1890. [back]
- 4. Frank Warren Fritzinger
(1867–1899), known as "Warry," took Edward Wilkins's place as Whitman's
nurse, beginning in October 1889. Fritzinger and his brother Harry were the sons
of Henry Whireman Fritzinger (about 1828–1881), a former sea captain who
went blind, and Almira E. Fritzinger. Following Henry Sr.'s death, Warren and
his brother—having lost both parents—became wards of Mary O. Davis,
Whitman's housekeeper, who had also taken care of the sea captain and who
inherited part of his estate. A picture of Warry is displayed in the May 1891
New England Magazine (278). See Joann P. Krieg, "Fritzinger, Frederick Warren (1866–1899),"
Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998), 240. [back]
- 5. Mary Oakes Davis (1837 or
1838–1908) was Whitman's housekeeper. For more, see Carol J. Singley,
"Davis, Mary Oakes (1837 or 1838–1908)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]