I hope this letter will reach you in good health and spirits—I wish I could share some of mine with you! I am back again at Oxford and at work once more. I realize more and more what a privilege it is to be here, so many chances for education and development. I am studying Greek & Latin loc_jc.00140_large.jpg literature & Greek art, I want to soak myself in the spirit of the classical times.
Apart from one's studies there is only too much that is delightful here. I row on the river every afternoon, all the men in the college who do not know how to row in the right way and yet want to learn, go down in the afternoons & sit in the barge that belongs to their particular college, & the experienced oarsmen take them out, four at a time & "coach" them.
loc_jc.00141_large.jpgWe have a debating society also which meets once a week to discuss the questions of the day. Some of these young Englishmen speak certainly very well. Last night we debated whether the government ought to supress Zola's1 novels—there were only three of us to defend the cause of realism!
Father2 starts to-morrow to drive from Llwynbarried to London with Alys,3 Madge4 & loc_jc.00142_large.jpg Evelyn Nordhoff.5 I expect them here in Oxford in about three days. I enclose a map of their journey. We are having splendid October weather so they ought to have a good time.
The Costelloes6 are in London now I believe. Mother7 has gone to Broadlands for Lord Mount Temple's8 funeral, he died rather suddenly last week.
Yours with much love Logan Pearsall SmithCorrespondent:
Logan Pearsall Smith
(1865–1946) was an essayist and literary critic. He was the son of Robert
Pearsall Smith, a minister and writer who befriended Whitman, and he was the
brother of Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe, one of Whitman's most avid followers.
For more information on Logan, 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).