Goodbye My Fancy

With Walt Whitman in His Last Days

By: Judith Grace

Narrated by: Paul Raci, Michael Golding, Judith Grace

Recreating three evenings late in Whitman's life, Goodbye My Fancy offers a truthful, intimate and touching look at our greatest American poet and his friendship with his secretary Horace Traubel.
Walt Whitman is played by Academy Award-nominated actor Paul Raci -- Horace Traubel is played by Michael Golding-- Directed by Conrad Cecil -- Produced by Jessica Koplos -- Pianist Michael Parks -- Narrated by Judith Grace

Every day, for the last four years of Whitman’s life, Traubel visited his friend and mentor in his small home in Camden, New Jersey. There, in his seventies, the great poet sat in his rocking chair, partially paralyzed, surrounded by a sea of papers, looking back over his life and accepting his quickly approaching death.

Within hours of each visit (unbeknownst to Whitman), Traubel faithfully jotted down his every word and action as his garrulous friend ranged over a myriad of subjects. The result was a complete and accurate record of the groundbreaking poet in all of his many moods, which was later published in the 9-volume series With Walt Whitman in Camden, called "the most truthful biography in our language."

Goodbye My Fancy was drawn almost entirely from these volumes. It loosely reconstructs the visits on three days in 1890, 1891, and 1892 (March 26, the day of Whitman's death).

Through the witty and affectionate repartee of the two unlikely friends, we are in the room with them experiencing these moments just as they happened.
Over the course of the play, Whitman reminisces to Horace about his time as a nurse in the Civil War, the death of Lincoln, and the reception of his book Leaves of Grass, which was banned as "obscene," all the while meeting his own suffering and impending death with astonishing equanimity.

©2024 Judith Bassat (P)2024 Judith Bassat

An intimate, palpable experience with Walt Whitman

We are privy to Whitman’s most intimate thoughts expressed with love between these two dear friends. We feel the immediacy of his presence – the experience resonates. A beautiful script and performance.

A man who created a life worth living

This gives us a taste of Whitman’s complete embrace of the beauty and the difficult, the frightening chaos of the Civil War and chose it all.

The warmth and humanity of Whitman.

I liked the feeling of two men having a conversation that ranged across all topics, you felt like nothing was too small or too insignificant for them. And it was touching and heartfelt.