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Medical Superintendent's
Office.
INSANE ASYLUM
LONDON ONTARIO1
22 Oct 1891
Beemer2 is away on holidays, Barber3 sick in bed—Ross4 and
I have to get along best we can—I
gave my first lecture Monday, give another Saturday Morning. Three lectures are two hours each so that they each one use up a lot of material. You may judge
that I have ^no idle time on my hands. I have your cards of
18th & 20th—thanks!5 Yes, I wrote Costelloe6
about a month ago re the Morse7 head8—asked him
to have it sent to Dr Johnston,9 Bolton, unless it was in the hands of some one who cared
for it—have not heard from him since.
Had a letter from Wallace10 (dated Camden 20th) this morning—he
is a good fellow and a true man and friend—I think very highly indeed of him—
So long! dear Walt
Love to you
R M Bucke
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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:
Walt Whitman | 328 Mickle Street | Camden | New Jersey | U.S.A. It is
postmarked: [illegible] | [illegible] | OC 22 | 91 | CANADA.;
CAMDEN, N.J. | OCT 2[illegible] | 4 PM |
91 | REC'D. [back]
- 2. Dr. Nelson Henry (N. H.)
Beemer (ca. 1854–1934) was in charge of the "Refractory Building" at
Bucke's asylum and served as his first assistant physician. Whitman met Beemer
during his visit there in the summer of 1880. See James H. Coyne, Richard Maurice Bucke: A Sketch (Toronto: Transactions of
the Royal Society of Canada, 1906), 52. [back]
- 3. As yet we have no information about
this person. [back]
- 4. Bucke may be referring to
Margaret Alexandria Ross, an employee of the Asylum. [back]
- 5. See Whitman's letters to
Bucke of October 18, 1891 and October 20, 1891. [back]
- 6. Benjamin Francis Conn
("Frank") Costelloe (1854–1899) was an English barrister and Liberal Party
politician. He was the first husband of Mary Whitall Smith (1864–1945), a
political activist, art historian, and critic, whom Whitman once called his
"staunchest living woman friend." [back]
- 7. Sidney H. Morse (1832–1903)
was a self-taught sculptor as well as a Unitarian minister and, from 1866 to
1872, editor of The Radical. He visited Whitman in Camden
many times and made various busts of him. Whitman had commented on an earlier
bust by Morse that it was "wretchedly bad." For more on this, see Ruth L. Bohan,
Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art,
1850–1920 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,
2006), 105–109. [back]
- 8. Bucke is referring to one of
the four plaster busts of Whitman that were sculpted by Sidney Morse. See
Whitman's October 20, 1891, letter to
Bucke. [back]
- 9. 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]
- 10. James William Wallace
(1853–1926), of Bolton, England, was an architect and great admirer of
Whitman. Wallace, along with Dr. John Johnston (1852–1927), a physician in
Bolton, 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 Wallace, see Larry D. Griffin, "Wallace, James William (1853–1926)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]