- “Old Age’s Ship & Crafty Death’s” and “Sail Out for Good Eidòlon Yacht,”
LG, 543, 539.
61.LG, 534. See Mrs. Herbert S. Harned Jr., “The Origin of ‘The Dismantled
Ship,’” WWQR 16 (1998), 37; a photograph of the etching appears on the back cover
of this issue. - Daniel Longaker, “The Last Sickness and Death of Walt Whitman,” in
In Re Walt Whitman, ed. Richard Maurice Bucke, Horace Traubel, and Thomas
Harned, 393–411, reprinted in Myerson, Whitman in His Own Time, 43. - Bucke’s letters, quoted in Artem Lozynsky, ed., Richard Maurice Bucke, Medi-
cal Mystic: Letters of Dr. Bucke to Walt Whitman and His Friends (Detroit: Wayne State
UP, 1977), 140, 172. - “Continuities,” LG, 523–524.
- Alma Calder Johnston, “Personal Memories of Walt Whitman,” Bookman,
1917, quoted in Myerson, Whitman in His Own Time, 272. - “Whitman,” Fortnightly Review, 1886, reprinted in Hindus, Walt Whitman,
206; The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde, ed. Merle Holland and Rupert Hart-Davis
(New York: Henry Holt, 2000), 144. On Whitman’s status as a guru and seer among
the Whitmanites, see Carmen Sarracino, “Redrawing Whitman’s Circle,” WWQR 14
(1996–1997), 113–127. - David D. Anderson, Robert Ingersoll (New York: Twayne, 1972), 122. For Whit-
man’s exchanges with Ingersoll, see, for example, “Walt Whitman’s Birthday: A De-
lightful Dinner in Honor of the Venerable Poet’s 69th Birthday,” New York Times,
1 June, 1890, 5:2; WWC, 5:47.
68.WWC, 8:369, 477; WWC, 9:24; WWC, 8:556–557. In a more accepting frame of
mind, Whitman said that he found something uplifting both in Christianity and in
Ingersoll: WWC, 8:30–31.
69.WWC, 9:576; Traubel notes that he transcribed these words hurriedly as the
poet could barely manage to speak. The elderly Whitman had frequently praised
Tennyson. Whittier, whose poetry he regarded highly, wrote many attractive poems
on death. - “A Death-Bouquet” ( January, 1890), PW1892, 671–673.
- Lozynsky, Richard Maurice Bucke, 117, 167–178.
72.WWC, 8:142; WWC, 9:234, 433. - Myerson, Whitman in His Own Time, 101–102.
74.WWC, 9:277. Volumes 8 and 9 of With Walt Whitman in Camden may com-
prise the most complete record of the sickness and dying of any literary personality—
several hundred detailed pages. It is remarkable that throughout his prolonged ¤nal
illness Whitman exhibited a sweetness of demeanor, a powerful memory retention,
and moments of startling lucidity. To the very last, he was concerned with his repu-
tation, the regard of his contemporaries and acolytes, and the publishing progress of
his books. - See Longaker, “Last Sickness and Death,” 93. Dr. Longaker was Whitman’s
last attending physician. For a later analysis of Whitman’s terminal condition, see
Josiah C. Trent, “Walt Whitman: A Case History,” Surgery, Gynecology, Obstetrics
87 ( July 1948), 113–121. Dr. Trent speculated that Whitman’s medical symptoms indic-
Notes to Pages 235–239 / 273