The two post cards (re Mrs Costelloe2 and O'C.3) are this moment to hand. We absolutely must not look for any but the worst kind of news from poor O'C. the only consolation in the case is that /he/ does not suffer, at least not much. Some day (quite likely soon) he will have a series of fits that will end his life. It is bad, infernally bad, but we must stand it.4 [—] I am not well pleased that Mrs. C.has another girl,5 I hoped she would have a boy this time. Mrs & Mr Smith6 will be disappointed. C. himself7 is I suppose too busy to think much about these little matters. Nothing new here, weather colder but still bright and pleasant. I am still hard at it trying to get things straightened out
Affectionately Yours R M BuckeCorrespondent:
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).