Calamus. A Series Of Letters Written During The Years 1868-1880. By Walt Whitman To A Young Friend (Peter Doyle). Edited With An Introduction By Richard Maurice Bucke M.D. One Of Whitman's Literary Executors.
Boston: Published By Laurens Maynard At 287 Congress Street, 1897. First (trade) edition, first issue, following a limited edition of 35 large-paper copies, signed by Dr. Bucke, of which 25 were for sale. Myerson A14.1.b1. In addition to the letters by Whitman, who died in 1892, this book contains a very interesting interview with Peter Doyle, conducted by Bucke and Horace Traubel in 1895, in which "Mr. Doyle is reported almost absolutely in his own words." Presentation copy, inscribed at the top of the front free endpaper: "Patrick Dougherty With the regards of Pete Doyle". Walt Whitman's relationship with Peter Doyle was the deepest and the longest of his erotic-romantic relationships with younger men, the only such long-term relationship that Whitman ever enjoyed. It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of their relationship in either man's life. They met in 1865 and within a couple of years, Whitman's friends (e.g. William Douglas O'Connor) began to comment on how powerfully "changed" and "inspired" the poet was by his feelings for Doyle. Serious students of Whitman have never questioned Doyle's pre-eminent place in his life. In the early 1990s, for instance, an entire issue of the Walt Whitman Quarterly was devoted..... More