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Walt Whitman to Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe, 1 June 1886

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Best love & greeting to you, & to Mr C2—also to Dr Bucke3Best love to your father, mother & Logan4 I to-day enter on my 68th year I have rec'd Dr's good letter, with your good note enclosed—Nothing new with me—I am ab't as usual—fine sun and air to-day no very warm weather here yet—Am sitting here by the open window—great bunches of roses, pinks & mignonette near me

W W

Correspondent:
Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe (1864–1945) was a political activist, art historian, and critic, whom Whitman once called his "staunchest living woman friend." A scholar of Italian Renaissance art and a daughter of Robert Pearsall Smith, she would in 1885 marry B. F. C. "Frank" Costelloe. She had been in contact with many of Whitman's English friends and would travel to Britain in 1885 to visit many of them, including Anne Gilchrist shortly before her death. For more, see Christina Davey, "Costelloe, Mary Whitall Smith (1864–1945)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).


Notes

  • 1. This postal card is addressed: Mrs: Costelloe | 40 Grosvenor Road | Embankment Westminster | London S W | England. It is postmarked: CAMDEN | JUN | 1 | 4 30 PM | 1886 | N.J. [back]
  • 2. Benjamin Francis Conn Costelloe (1854–1899), Mary's first husband, was an English barrister and Liberal Party politician. [back]
  • 3. On May 13 Richard Maurice Bucke had written to Whitman enthusiastically about his visit with the Costelloes. [back]
  • 4. Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) was Mary Costelloe's brother. For more information on Smith, see Christina Davey "Smith, Logan Pearsall (1865–1946)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
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