Walt Whitman to Robert Pearsall Smith, 4 March [1884]

 loc_jc.00179_large.jpg To R. Pearsall Smith 1884 Camden1 March 4 PM2

Thanks for your dear kind note of last week—I have been quite ill—the doctor says mainly a lesion or trouble, (physical) brain centre, other botherations too—but as I write this towards evening I have the very definite feeling of the worst having passed, & that I shall be better in a day or two—I feel so today already—& soon about as usual—

No my friend there is nothing you can specially do for me (I should frankly tell you, if there was.) Mary's3 and Logan's4 visit Sunday through the storm was a real comfort to me—(more a help than they knew.) I wish dear Alys5 would take  loc_jc.00180_large.jpg This side the earliest convenient opportunity to give my excuses & love to Mr6 and Mrs: Williams,7 and Churchy8—I have had this trouble on me now for over three weeks—

It is very lonesome here—If I had not been born with a happy-tending natural disposition (I inherit it from my mother9) the last few weeks—yes the last ten years—would have been unmitigated darkness & heaviness to me—As it is, the ennuyeed hours have been the rare exceptions—

Then about the shows of life & my experience in them I am deeper & deeper impressed the older I grow that the real something has yet to be known—

It is well I am physically ballasted so strong, with weightiest animality & appetites, or I should go off in a balloon—Well luckily for you my friend I have come to the end of the paper—

W W  loc_jc.00237_large.jpg  loc_jc.00238_large.jpg

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Notes

• 1. This letter is addressed: R Pearsall Smith | 410 Race Street | Philadelphia | Lock Box | P. It is postmarked: Camden | Mar | [illegible] | N.J.. [back]
• 2. Whitman noted this letter in his Commonplace Book (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). The poet had fallen ill on February 17 and was not able to leave the house until March 4. See the letter from Whitman to Robert Pearsall Smith of March 10, 1884. [back]
• 3. Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe (1864–1945) was a political activist, art historian, and critic, whom Whitman once called his "staunchest living woman friend." For more information about Costelloe, 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). [back]
• 4. Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) was an essayist and literary critic. He was the son of Robert Pearsall Smith. 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). [back]
• 5. Alyssa ("Alys") Whitall Pearsall Smith (1867–1951) was born in Philadelphia and became a Quaker relief organizer. She attended Bryn Mawr College and was a graduate of the class of 1890. She and her family lived in Britain for two years during her childhood and again beginning in 1888. She married the philosopher Bertrand Russell in 1894; the couple later separated, and they divorced in 1921. Smith also served as the chair of a society committee that set up the "Mothers and Babies Welcome" (the St Pancras School for Mothers) in London in 1907; this health center, dedicated to reducing the infant mortality rate, provided a range of medical and educational services for women. Smith was the daughter of Robert Pearsall and Hannah Whitall Smith, and she was the sister of Mary Whitall Smith (1864–1945), the political activist, art historian, and critic, whom Whitman once called his "staunchest living woman friend." [back]
• 6. Francis ("Frank") Howard Williams (1844–1922) was a Philadelphia poet and playwright who wrote several essays on Whitman and two sonnets to the poet (included in his The Flute Player and Other Poems [1896]). He often welcomed Whitman into his home in the 1880s and is frequently mentioned in Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden, where Whitman describes the Williams family home as "a sort of asylum (like old churches, temples) when so many homes were closed against me" (See Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Tuesday, September 18, 1888). [back]
• 7. Martha B. Houston Williams was the wife of playwright and poet Francis Howard Williams, whose home in Germantown, Philadelphia, Whitman often visited. [back]
• 8. F. Churchill Williams is mentioned in Whitman's Commonplace Book (Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.); he was a brother of Francis H. Williams. See the letter from Whitman to John H. Johnston of December 29, 1883). [back]
• 9. Louisa Van Velsor Whitman (1795–1873) married Walter Whitman, Sr., in 1816; together they had nine children, of whom Walt was the second. The close relationship between Louisa and her son Walt contributed to his liberal view of gender representation and his sense of comradeship. For more information on Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, see Sherry Ceniza, "Whitman, Louisa Van Velsor (1795–1873)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]