SOURCE: "Cosmic Consciousness and the Love of Comrades: Contacts Between R. M. Bucke and Edward Carpenter," in Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d'etude s canadiennes, Vol. 30, No. 2, Summer, 1995, pp. 39-57.

In the following essay, Weir examines the interaction between Carpenter and Canadian psychiatrist R. M. Backe, particularly as regards Whitman's poetry and their differing ideas on "cosmic consciousness."

Richard Maurice Bucke (1837-1902), medical superintendent at the Asylum for the Insane in London, Ontario from 1877 to his death in 1920, is one of the best documented figures in the history of Canadian medicine, although the recent feature film Beautiful Dreamers has not elevated him to the same beatific status as Banting and Best.' Bucke engaged in a voluminous correspondence with Walt Whitman, for whom he acted as personal physician, and with members of the Whitman circle. It was through common membership in Whitman's network that Bucke first became acquainted...