Walt Whitman to Richard Maurice Bucke, 20 April 1890
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Camden1
Sunday P M April 20 '90
Fine sunny day—expect to get out a little in wheel chair2—was out yesterday—feeling dull & leaden four or five days—nothing very new—some oysters for my breakfast—drink a little sweet champagne—y'rs rec'd,3 thanks—sit here as usual in big arm chair with the wolf-skin spread on back—generally get down stairs in the little room an hour after supper—
God bless you all— Walt Whitman
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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 Bucke | Asylum | London | Ontario | Canada. It is postmarked: Camden, N. [illegible] | Apr 20 | 5 PM | 90. [back]
- 2. Horace Traubel and Ed Wilkins, Whitman's nurse, went to Philadelphia to purchase a wheeled chair for the poet that would allow him to be "pull'd or push'd" outdoors. See Whitman's letter to William Sloane Kennedy of May 8, 1889. [back]
- 3. The last extant letter from Bucke is dated April 14, 1890. There are no additional surviving letters between April 14 and April 20, 1890. [back]