Camden New Jersey U S America1
May 22 1890
My dear Forman
Y'r good letter with the £5 has reached me,2 & I
have sent off to-day the books & pictures by the International Express (Adams's)
address'd the same as this letter, (as the package was too big for mail)—Send
me word when it reaches you in good order3—also
what the expressage freight charge was—
I am feeling pretty well at present, but have had a bad winter—have had the grip & a second attack—was out yesterday four
or five miles, to the bay shore & linger'd some time by the water side—eat
& sleep middling well—in good spirits—
Dr Bucke4 is here temporarily—is well—shall probably
get out this fine afternoon in wheel-chair5—have kind attention—I send
you my last piece—
Love to you & best wishes & remembrances to British
friends—
Walt Whitman
Correspondent:
Henry "Harry" Buxton
Forman (1842–1917) was a British man-of-letters, an editor of and
authority on the works of Keats and Shelley, and, starting in 1887, a
conspirator in literary forgeries that were exposed after his death. The
correspondence at this time between Bucke and Forman makes it clear that Bucke
was also building up Forman's collection of Whitman materials (D. B. Weldon
Library, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario).
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
H Buxton Forman | 46 Marlborough Hill | St John's wood | London n w | England.
It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | May 22 | 6 PM | 90; London N.W. | Z A | Ju 2 |
90. [back]
- 2. This letter is not
extant. [back]
- 3. Forman acknowledges receipt
of this package in his June 4, 1890, letter to
Whitman. This acknowledgement is dated incorrectly as June 16 in Miller. The
June 16, 1890, letter acknowledges receipt of
an inscribed copy of November Boughs only, which is
inconsistent with Whitman's reference to "books & pictures" in this
letter. [back]
- 4. 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]
- 5. Horace Traubel and Ed
Wilkins, Whitman's nurse, went to Philadelphia to purchase a wheeled chair for
the poet that would allow him to be "pull'd or push'd" outdoors. See Whitman's
letter to William Sloane Kennedy of May 8,
1889. [back]