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Camden1
Friday noon
Oct: 7
Welcome back2—your card rec'd—Come over
soon—Alys3 too, (I suppose she has
returned)—I have survived the hot seige of the summer & am all right.
Drove out yesterday—I hear from Dr Bucke4—he is well
& busy—Gilchrist5 is back in Eng: with his
picture—Best love & thanks—
W W
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Correspondent:
Robert Pearsall Smith
(1827–1898) was a Quaker who became an evangelical minister associated
with the "Holiness movement." He was also a writer and businessman. Whitman
often stayed at his Philadelphia home, where the poet became friendly with the
Smith children—Mary, Logan, and Alys. For more information about Smith,
see Christina Davey, "Smith, Robert Pearsall (1827–1898)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998).
Notes
- 1. This postal card is
addressed: Pearsall Smith | 1309 Arch Street | Philadelphia. It is postmarked:
Camden, N.J. | Oct 7 | 12 M | 87; Received | Oct | 7 | 1 PM | 1887 |
Phila. [back]
- 2. Smith had just returned
from England, where he had seen his new grandchild Rachel Costelloe. [back]
- 3. Alys Smith
(1867–1951) was a daughter of Robert Pearsall Smith and the sister of Mary
Whitall Smith Costelloe. She eventually married the philosopher Bertrand
Russell. [back]
- 4. Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) was a
Canadian physician and psychiatrist who grew close to Whitman after reading Leaves of Grass in 1867 (and later memorizing it) and
meeting the poet in Camden a decade later. Even before meeting Whitman, Bucke
claimed in 1872 that a reading of Leaves of Grass led him
to experience "cosmic consciousness" and an overwhelming sense of epiphany.
Bucke became the poet's first biographer with Walt
Whitman (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1883), and he later served as one
of his medical advisors and literary executors. For more on the relationship of
Bucke and Whitman, see Howard Nelson, "Bucke, Richard Maurice," Walt Whitman: An
Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York:
Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 5. Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist
(1857–1914), son of Alexander and Anne Gilchrist, was an English painter
and editor of Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887). For more information, see Marion Walker Alcaro,
"Gilchrist, Herbert Harlakenden (1857–1914)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D.
Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]