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54 Manchester Road,
Bolton.
England,1
Oct 17th 1891.
My Dear Old Friend,
Another dear, good letter from you was received yesterday2 for which I send you my
heartiest thanks. How good it is of you to write to me so often! And you suffering
from so many physical disabilities too!
I can do naught but reverently accept these continued tokens of your great love
& with grateful heart say—"I thank you."
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The best & most welcome news in your letter was contained in the
words—"nothing worse with me" which was indeed glad tidings to us all here I
do hope & trust that this comparatively good report will be confirmed by the
next news about you.
I thank you, too, for sending me Dr Bucke's3 letter to you from
Montreal & I shall look forward to seeing a copy of his address,4 as I feel sure
it will prove well worthy of the man whom I am proud to call friend.
I am very sorry to hear that good Mrs Davis5
has
had a ten days illness, but am glad to know that she was getting better when you
wrote. Will you please give her my kindest regards & my sincere sympathy in her
trouble which I trust may be nothing serious? She must take care of herself for her
own & for all our sakes.
I received the book you kindly sent for George Humphreys6
yesterday7 & thank you cordially for your kindness in sending it. He is very
proud of it & will write to
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thank you personally by next mail. He is a very
intelligent working-man, mainly self taught, & has a sincere love for you &
appreciation of your message.
I am sending you this month's Review of Reviews,8 & a
cutting from the Strand Magazine9 for Oct about yr friend Tennyson10 wh: will interest
you.
Weather here very unsettled—a great deal of rain. Today we had some
magnificent cloud effects.
I am wondering often & often about my dear friend Wallace11
& his doings.12 You dont know how much we all miss him & how we are hungering
& thirsting for him.
God's blessing rest upon you & yours now & ever is the heart felt
prayer of yours affectionately
J. Johnston
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Correspondent:
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).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Walt Whitman | 328 Mickle St | Camden | New Jersey | U. S.
America. It is postmarked: Bolton | [illegible]6 | OC [illegible] | 91; Camden, N.J. | Oct 2[illegible] | 6 AM | 91 | Rec'd.; Paid | G | All.; G | 91; [illegible] | Oct | 29. The recto of the
envelope is endorsed: "J J." [back]
- 2. Whitman wrote to Johnston on
October 3, 1891 and October 6, 1891. Johnston is almost certainly referring to one of
these letters. [back]
- 3. 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). [back]
- 4. 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]
- 5. 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]
- 6. Little is known about the
millwright and machine-fitter George Humphreys, who was a member of the Bolton
College group of Whitman admirers. [back]
- 7. Whitman offered to send
"Humphries" a copy of Leaves of Grass in a July 31, 1891, postal card to Johnston. [back]
- 8. The Review
of Reviews was a magazine begun by the reform journalist William Thomas
Stead (1849–1912) in 1890 and published in Great Britain. It contained
reviews and excerpts from other magazines and journals, as well as original
pieces, many written by Stead himself. Mary Costelloe on March 14, 1890, had sent Whitman a copy from England. [back]
- 9. The Strand
Magazine was a British montly magazine founded by the editor and
publisher George Newnes (1851–1910). The magazine's run began in January
of 1891 and extended well into the twentieth century, through March 1950. The Strand published short fiction and fiction series, as
well as general interest factual articles. [back]
- 10. 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]
- 11. 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]
- 12. Wallace visited Whitman in
Camden, New Jersey, and the Canadian physician Richard Maurice Bucke at Bucke's
home in London, Ontario, Canada, in the fall of 1891. He also spent time in New
York during the trip. Accounts of Wallace's visit can be found in Dr. John
Johnston and Wallace's Visits to Walt Whitman in
1890–91 (London, England: G. Allen & Unwin, ltd.,
1917). [back]