loc_zs.00401.jpg
Medical Superintendent's
Office.
INSANE ASYLUM
LONDON ONTARIO
25 Oct 1891
Bight, cool, pleasant days and frosty nights here now-a-days. Plenty work and no news. Hardly any time for reading.
Have been writing letters and seeing sick folk all day—when I write this line shall jump into buggy and have an hour's drive:—quite
a long letter from Wallace1 a couple of days ago (but I think I referred to it in my last)2 he
likes the tomb3 very much.
I had a letter from Col. Ingersoll4 (sent it to Horace,5 perhaps he will show it you) re my Montreal address.6
The Col. was very complimentary—seemed to like the address immensely
Love to you, dear Walt,
R M Bucke
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. 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]
- 2. See Bucke's letter of October 22, 1891. [back]
- 3. Whitman was buried in
Harleigh Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey, on March 30, 1892, four days after his
death, 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]
- 4. Robert "Bob" Green Ingersoll
(1833–1899) was a Civil War veteran and an orator of the post-Civil War
era, known for his support of agnosticism. Ingersoll was a friend of Whitman,
who considered Ingersoll the greatest orator of his time. Whitman said to Horace
Traubel, "It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll, for he is
Leaves of Grass. He lives, embodies, the
individuality I preach. I see in Bob the noblest
specimen—American-flavored—pure out of the soil, spreading, giving,
demanding light" (Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden,
Wednesday, March 25, 1891). The feeling was mutual. Upon Whitman's
death in 1892, Ingersoll delivered the eulogy at the poet's funeral. The eulogy
was published to great acclaim and is considered a classic panegyric (see
Phyllis Theroux, The Book of Eulogies [New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1997], 30). [back]
- 5. 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]
- 6. Dr. Bucke received his
medical degree from McGill University in Montreal in 1862, and he returned there
in 1891 at the request of the medical faculty in order to deliver the opening
academic lecture, "The Value of the Study of Medicine." The lecture was
published in the Montreal Medical Journal 20 (November
1891), 321–345. [back]