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Camden1
Aug: 28 P M—
Dr Johnston2 got back to England all right—he went down to
Long Island West Hills &c:—saw Herbert Gilchrist3—saw
John4 Burroughs5—
the Illustrated American N Y Aug: 30
has a long middling good piece ab't Ruskin,6
a ¶ or two devoted to me7—fine sunny
weather—bread & fruit & comb honey for breakfast—The essay
"Comparison of Elizabethan with Victorian Poetry" (2d vol) in Symonds's8
books makes up for all the ponderosity (if that's the trouble) of the rest & is first
rate9—Yes, I enclose a slip of "rejoinder"10—I have just sold 50 sets in
sheets11 big book12 $3
each—(I suppose some Londoner, Eng—don't know for certain)—have
had my early supper—out soon in wheel chair13—pleasant cool
evn'g—
Aug: 29, early A M—have had my breakfast—oatmeal, comb honey, & some
melon—fine day—was out last evn'g—O W Holmes14
has a fling at me in last Atlantic—I send you it in
paper15—the "rejoinder" continues to be extracted &
criticised & talked ab't—(it is nothing but what I say throughout in my
books)16—frequent visitors—generally
receive them, but do not if too ill or stupid wh' happens at times—Sit here
the same in the old den—as now—my grip takes the form of cold in the
head & sore throat to-day—
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.J. |
Aug 29 | 8 PM | 90; NY | 7-29-90 | [illegible]PM | [illegible]
;London | PM | AU 30 | 9 | Canada. [back]
- 2. Dr. John Johnston (1852–1927)
of Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, was a physician, photographer, and avid
cyclist. Johnston was trained in Edinburgh and served as a hospital surgeon in
West Bromwich for two years before moving to Bolton, England, in 1876. Johnston
worked as a general practitioner in Bolton and as an instructor of ambulance
classes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways. He served at Whalley Military
Hospital during World War I and became Medical Superintendent of Townley's
Hospital in 1917 (John Anson, "Bolton's Illustrious Doctor Johnston—a man
of many talents," Bolton News [March 28, 2021]; Paul
Salveson, Moorlands, Memories, and Reflections: A Centenary
Celebration of Allen Clarke's Moorlands and Memories [Lancashire
Loominary, 2020]). Johnston, along with the architect James W. Wallace, founded
the "Bolton College" of English admirers of the poet. Johnston and Wallace
corresponded with Whitman and with Horace Traubel and other members of the
Whitman circle in the United States, and they separately visited the poet and
published memoirs of their trips in John Johnston and James William Wallace, Visits to Walt Whitman in 1890–1891 by Two Lancashire
Friends (London: Allen and Unwin, 1917). For more information on
Johnston, see Larry D. Griffin, "Johnston, Dr. John (1852–1927)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist
(1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter
and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro,
"Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 4. The naturalist John Burroughs
(1837–1921) met Whitman on the streets of Washington, D.C., in 1864. After
returning to Brooklyn in 1864, Whitman commenced what was to become a decades-long
correspondence with Burroughs. Burroughs was magnetically drawn to Whitman.
However, the correspondence between the two men is, as Burroughs acknowledged,
curiously "matter-of-fact." Burroughs would write several books involving or
devoted to Whitman's work: Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and
Person (1867), Birds and Poets (1877), Whitman, A Study (1896), and Accepting
the Universe (1924). For more on Whitman's relationship with Burroughs,
see Carmine Sarracino, "Burroughs, John [1837–1921] and Ursula [1836–1917]," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. Burroughs commented on
Dr. Johnston's visit in his journal on July 24: "A canny young Scot. Like him
first rate" (see Clara Barrus, Whitman and
Burroughs—Comrades [Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1931],
292). [back]
- 6. John Ruskin (1819–1900) was
one of the leading art critics in Victorian Great Britain. Whitman sent Leaves of Grass and a "couple of photographs" to Ruskin
via William Harrison Riley in March 1879 (see the letter from Whitman to Riley
of March 18, 1879). Ruskin, according to Whitman,
expressed "worry...[that] Leaves of Grass is...too personal, too emotional,
launched from the fires of...spinal passions, joys, yearnings" (see the
letter from Whitman to William O'Connor of October 7,
1882). Whitman, late in life, said to Horace Traubel: "[I] take my
Ruskin with some qualifications." Still, Ruskin "is not to be made little of: is
of unquestionable genius and nobility" (Horace Traubel, With
Walt Whitman in Camden, Thursday, January 24, 1889, 17). [back]
- 7. Whitman is referring to
"John Ruskin" by "A Companion of His Guild of St. George," The
Illustrated American 3 (August 30, 1890): 347–352. The article
not only referred to Whitman, but also reprinted a letter from the poet to the
author, William Harrison Riley. See Whitman's letter of March 18, 1879 to Riley. [back]
- 8. John Addington Symonds
(1840–1893), a prominent biographer, literary critic, and poet in
Victorian England, was author of the seven-volume history Renaissance in Italy, as well as Walt
Whitman—A Study (1893), and a translator of Michelangelo's
sonnets. But in the smaller circles of the emerging upper-class English
homosexual community, he was also well known as a writer of homoerotic poetry
and a pioneer in the study of homosexuality, or sexual inversion as it was then
known. See Andrew C. Higgins, "Symonds, John Addington [1840–1893]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 9. Whitman is referring to John
Addington Symonds's Essays Speculative and Suggestive
(London: Chapman and Hall, 1890). The chapter on "Democratic Art" is mainly
inspired by Whitman. In his August 20–22,
1890, letter, Bucke remarked: "The whole article is 'flat, stale and
unprofitable'—a saw dust chewing business—dealing with the hull, the
shell, the superfices, never for one line, one flash of insight penetrating to
the heart of the business." On August 24, 1890,
Whitman observed: "you are a little more severe on Symonds than I sh'd
be." [back]
- 10. "An Old Man's Rejoinder" was
published in The Critic 17 (August 16, 1890),
85–86. The "Rejoinder" was later reprinted in Good-Bye
My Fancy (1891) (see Prose Works 1892, Volume 2:
Collect and Other Prose, ed. Floyd Stovall [New York: New York
University Press, 1964], 655–658). Bucke acknowledged receiving it on September 2, 1890. [back]
- 11. See Whitman's letter to
Frederick Oldach on August 27, 1890, requesting
the fifty sets be made up. [back]
- 12. 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]
- 13. 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]
- 14. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
(1809–1894) was a Bostonian author, physician, and lecturer. One of the
Fireside Poets, he was a good friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson as well as John
Burroughs. Holmes remained ambivalent about Whitman's poetry. He married Amelia
Lee Jackson in 1840 and they had three children, including the later Supreme
Court judge Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. For more information, see Julie A.
Rechel-White, "Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809–1894)," (Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, eds. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings
[New York: Garland Publishing, 1998], 280). [back]
- 15. Whitman is referring to a
piece by Oliver Wendell Holmes. See "Over the Teacups. X." Atlantic Monthly 66 (September 1890), 388–390. Bucke responded
on September 2, 1890: "O. W. is to all intents and
purposes an Englishman (and a very good speciment too) Such a book as L. of G.
and the mentality that goes with such a book is as far as possible from his
ideal." [back]
- 16. In his letter of September 2, 1890, Bucke wrote: "Of course you have
said it all before (and more than once) but the children have not learned the
lesson yet and there is no harm (even need) to repeat." [back]