Camden1
6 P M
June 24 91
Pleasant weather—partial depression to-day—just finish'd my
supper—some stew'd cherries, Graham bread, tea & very small bit of broil'd
meat—rec'd y'r letter2—then you are going off on the Britannic on the
8th—no doubt you will have a good trip—("hold your horses")3—will prepare & send you forthwith the
introductory note to Tennyson4 (you can use it or not as
convenient)—forthcoming L[ippincott's]5 mag not out
yet, but I suppose it is all right—Dr L[ongaker]6
here yesterday—he aids the coleur de rose view, (as a
doctor doubtless should)—H T[raubel]7 is well—will
write again Saturday, if not before.
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. |
Jun 2[illegible] | 5 PM | 91. [back]
- 2. Whitman is likely
referring to Bucke's letter of June 21,
1891. [back]
- 3. As Bucke's letters in May
and June 1891 both to Whitman and Horace Traubel make clear, he was going abroad
to establish a foreign market for his gas and fluid meter, a subject to which he
referred constantly in his communications but which the poet studiously
ignored. [back]
- 4. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) succeeded
William Wordsworth as poet laureate of Great Britain in 1850. The intense male
friendship described in In Memoriam, which Tennyson wrote
after the death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam, possibly influenced Whitman's
poetry. Whitman wrote to Tennyson in 1871 or late 1870, probably shortly after the
visit of Cyril Flower in December, 1870, but the letter is not extant (see Thomas Donaldson,
Walt Whitman the Man [New York: F. P.
Harper, 1896], 223). Tennyson's first letter to Whitman is dated July
12, 1871. Although Tennyson extended an invitation for Whitman
to visit England, Whitman never acted on the offer. [back]
- 5. In March 1891, Lippincott's Magazine published "Old Age Echoes," a cycle of four poems including "Sounds of the
Winter," "The Unexpress'd," "Sail Out for Good, Eidólon Yacht," and "After
the Argument." Also appearing in that issue was an autobiographical prose essay
by Whitman ("Some Personal and Old-Age Memoranda") and another piece on Whitman
by Traubel. In his January 7, 1891, letter to the
Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke, Whitman referred to the March issue of
Lippincott's as "a Whitman number." See also
Whitman's January 20–21, 1891, response to
Kennedy. [back]
- 6. 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. Carol J. Singley reports that "Longaker enjoyed talking with
Whitman about human nature and reflects that Whitman responded as well to their
conversations as he did to medical remedies" ("Longaker, Dr. Daniel [1858–1949]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R.LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings [New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998]). [back]
- 7. 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]