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Camden
Jan: 11 '881
P. M.—The box of chocolate & cocoa came—delicious—many
thanks—I had some for my breakfast this morning—Remain "under the
weather" yet—The plaster bust2 of E H3 may come in ten or twelve days—
—Would you pay the expressage for me? It will probably be $2 ab't—
Walt Whitman
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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: R Pearsall Smith | 1305 Arch Street | Philadelphia. It is postmarked:
Camden, N.J. | JAN 11 | 6 PM | 88. [back]
- 2. The bust of Elias Hicks was
sculpted by Sidney Morse (1832–1903), a self-taught sculptor as well as a
Unitarian minister and, from 1866 to 1872, editor of The
Radical. He finally did send it to Whitman by April of 1888. See
Whitman's April 18, 1888, letter to William Sloane
Kennedy and Richard Maurice Bucke. [back]
- 3. Elias Hicks (1748–1830) was a
Quaker from Long Island whose controversial teachings led to a split in the
Religious Society of Friends in 1827, a division that was not resolved until
1955. Hicks had been a friend of Whitman's father and grandfather, and Whitman
himself was a supporter and proponent of Hicks's teachings, writing about him in
Specimen Days (see "Reminiscence of Elias Hicks") and November
Boughs (see "Elias Hicks, Notes (such as they are)"). For more on Hicks and his
influence on Whitman, see David S. Reynolds, Walt Whitman's
America (New York: Knopf, 1995), 37–39. [back]