Cosmic Consciousness and the Love of Comrades: Contacts Between R.M. Bucke and Edward Carpenter
Journal of Canadian Studies May 1, 1995 Lorna Weir
A historical analysis of correspondence between Canadian psychiatrist R.M. Bucke and English poet Edward Carpenter reveals that Bucke consistently avoided Carpenter's invitations to discuss Walt Whitman's poetry of same-sex desire, reflecting a broader pattern of denial in early Whitman criticism. Carpenter likely sparked Bucke's interest in "cosmic consciousness" and shaped his thinking, though Bucke's approach was materialist while Carpenter's was idealist. Both used the concept to valorize unity over difference and simplicity over complexity, revealing a logocentrism deeper than the materialism-idealism divide.