loc_zs.00595.jpg
Camden1
Dec: 5 pm '91
A bad week (ab't as bad as any)—Dr L2
absent sick but a suspision of easier last night—bladder
suffering mostly, but other things—yr's rec'd3—Thanks—H
Staff's4 wife5 & children (fine ones)
call this mn'g—have just drink'd a glass of buttermilk—cool
& sunny—no final set'ment of the tomb6 bill7—no final
L of G's8 yet—nothing more of the Eng: publishing proposal9—am
sitting here in g't chair same inertia ab't same—but feel as if I
were a great unmitigated mass of perturbation & belly-ache10—I enc:
Logan Smith's11 f'm Paris (good friendly yn'g
fellow)—some NY friend12 has just sent a nice big box of oranges
& grapes—Horace13 well—Mrs:
D14 and Warry15 kind
always—I have means (money) enough—
Love to you, Mrs. B16 & the
childer17
Walt Whitman
loc_zs.00596.jpg
loc_zs.00597.jpg
loc_zs.00598.jpg
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. | DEC
5 | 8 PM | 91; PHILADELPHIA, P.A. | DEC | 5 | [illegible] PM | 1891 | TRANSIT; London | PM | DE 7 | 91 |
CANADA. [back]
- 2. Daniel Longaker
(1858–1949) was a Philadelphia physician who specialized in obstetrics. He
became Whitman's doctor in early 1891 and provided treatment during the poet's
final illness. For more information, see Carol J. Singley, "Longaker, Dr. Daniel [1858–1949]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R.LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. It is uncertain which letter
Whitman is referring to here. [back]
- 4. Walt Whitman met the 18-year-old Harry Lamb Stafford
(1858–1918) in 1876, beginning a relationship which was almost entirely
overlooked by early Whitman scholarship, in part because Stafford's name appears
nowhere in the first six volumes of Horace Traubel's With Walt
Whitman in Camden—though it does appear frequently in the last
three volumes, which were published only in the 1990s. Whitman occasionally
referred to Stafford as "My (adopted) son" (as in a December 13, 1876, letter to John H. Johnston), but the relationship
between the two also had a romantic, erotic charge to it. In 1883, Harry married
Eva Westcott. For further discussion of Stafford, see Arnie Kantrowitz, "Stafford, Harry L. (b.1858)," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. Eva M. Westcott
(1857–1939) was a teacher in New Jersey. She married Harry Lamb Stafford
on June 25, 1883, and together they had three children. [back]
- 6. Whitman was buried in
Harleigh Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey, on March 30, 1892, in an elaborate
granite tomb that he designed. Reinhalter and Company of Philadelphia built the
tomb, at a cost of $4,000. Whitman covered a portion of these costs with
money that his Boston friends had raised so that the poet could purchase a
summer cottage; the remaining balance was paid by Whitman's literary executor,
Thomas Harned. For more information on the cemetery and Whitman's tomb, see See
Geoffrey M. Still, "Harleigh Cemetery," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 7. See Whitman's letters to
Bucke of November 12–14, 1891 and November 22, 1891, for more on the payment
arrangements for the tomb. The receipt from P. Reinhalter & Company, the
builders of the poet's tomb, read: "Received from Walt Whitman tenth of July,
1891 One thousand dollars cash, for the tomb in Harleigh Cemetery—making,
including the sum of five hundred dollars (paid May 12 last) altogether to date
the sum of fifteen hundred dollars which is hereby receipted"; see the Detroit
Public Library's publication, An Exhibition of the Works of
Walt Whitman, (Detroit: February and March 1955), 41. [back]
- 8. Whitman wanted to have a
copy of the final Leaves of Grass before his death, and
he also wanted to be able to present copies to his friends. A version of the
1891–1892 Leaves of Grass, often referred to as the
"deathbed edition," was bound in December of 1891 so that Whitman could give the
volume to friends at Christmas. The following year, the 1891–1892 Leaves of Grass was published by Phildelphia publisher
David McKay. This volume reprints, with minor revisions, the 1881 text from the
plates of Boston publisher James R. Osgood. Whitman also includes his two
annexes in the book. The first annex consisted of a long prefatory essay
entitled "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" and sixty-five poems; while the
second, "Good-Bye my Fancy," was a collection of thirty-one short poems taken
from the gathering of prose and poetry published under that title by McKay in
1891. For more information on this volume of Leaves, see
R.W. French, "Leaves of Grass, 1891–1892 edition,"
Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and
Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 9. In a letter to Richard
Maurice Bucke dated November 22, 1891, Whitman
explained that "[William] Heineman, [Wolcott] Balestier, & [John] Lovell
want to purchase the American copyright [to Leaves of Grass]—I do not care
to sell it as at present minded." See also Harry Buxton Forman's letter to
Whitman of November 8, 1891. [back]
- 10. Whitman's condition would
continue to worsen during the month of December 1891. On December 17, Whitman
came down with a chill and was suffering from congestion in his right lung.
Although the poet's condition did improve in January 1892, he would never
recover. He was confined to his bed, and his physicians, Dr. Daniel Longaker of
Philadelphia and Dr. Alexander McAlister of Camden, provided care during his
final illness. Whitman died on March 26, 1892. [back]
- 11. Logan Pearsall Smith
(1865–1946) was an essayist and literary critic. He was the son of Robert
Pearsall Smith, a minister and writer who befriended Whitman, and he was the
brother of Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe, one of Whitman's most avid followers.
For more information on Logan, 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]
- 12. As yet we have no information about
this person. [back]
- 13. 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]
- 14. 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]
- 15. 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]
- 16. Jessie Maria Gurd Bucke
(1839–1926) grew up in Mooretown, Upper Canada. She was the daughter of
William Gurd, an army officer from Ireland. Gurd married Richard Maurice Bucke
in 1865. The couple had eight children. [back]
- 17. Richard Maurice Bucke
(1837–1902) and his wife Jessie Gurd Bucke (1839–1926) had three
daughters and five sons: Clare Georgina (1866–1867), Maurice Andrews
(1868–1899), Jessie Clare (1870–1943), William Augustus
(1873–1933), Edward Pardee (1875–1913), Ina Matilda
(1877–1968), Harold Langmuir (1879–1951), and Robert Walpole
(1881–1923). [back]