Camden1
Wednesday P M
Sept: 19 '88
"The same subject continued" was the heading of the old chapters' novelists, this is
ab't my note—Am I right in predicating that all goes with you better than for
some time? Somehow I hope so—I hear from Dr B[ucke]2—& friends here come in a good deal—meantime I am anchor'd here in
my big chair, quite immobile—The printing goes on fairly3—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
William Douglas O'Connor
(1832–1889) was the author of the grand and grandiloquent Whitman pamphlet
The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, published in 1866.
For more on Whitman's relationship with O'Connor, see Deshae E. Lott, "O'Connor, William Douglas (1832–1889)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This letter is endorsed:
"Answ'd Oct. 5, 1888." It is addressed: Wm Douglas O'Connor | 1015 O Street |
Washington | D C. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J.| Sep 19 | 8 PM | 88;
Washington, Rec'd. | Sep 20 | 7 AM | 88 | 1. [back]
- 2. 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]
- 3. Whitman is referring to his
November Boughs, which would be published in October
1888, and Complete Poems & Prose, which would be
published in December 1888. [back]