loc_jc.00047_large.jpg
40 Grosvenor Road,
Westminster Embankment,
S.W.1
Dear Mr. Whitman—
I am writing to you from Mary's2 to tell you about her and
her dear little baby, four weeks old. It is another little girl to be called
Katherine Elizabeth,3 but Karin (pronounced like the "a" in
'car') for short. She is a dear good little baby with large blue eyes, and Ray4 is so pleased with loc_jc.00048_large.jpg her little sister. She calls her
"isser" & likes to kiss & stroke her. Mary is not as well as she ought to
be, a toublesome wisdom tooth having followed the appearance of the baby, and that
is why she hasnot written to you, though she has thought of you very often. The rest
of us are all well & very pleased to be back in England again. Father5 & Mother & I spent the winter
in loc_jc.00049_large.jpg France
& Italy & we enjoyed the trip very much indeed, but still nothing compares
to London & to the dear old Thames running by us here.
Mr. Rhys6 & his sister7 are near
neighbours of ours in Westminster & I have seen the sister once since I came
home. I think she is very pretty & charming, as you said.
Have you seen that novel "The Story of an African Farm"? We saw a good deal of the loc_jc.00050_large.jpg author, Olive
Schreiner,8 when we were in the Riviera, & she is such
an interesting girl. She has wonderful dark eyes & a lovely expressive face,
& her conversation is most delightful. I wish that she were going to America
instead of back to Africa, so that you could see her.— Mary sends you a great
deal of love & so do I, dear Mr. Whitman. We hope you are pretty well. Will you
give my love to Mrs. Davis?9
Yours affectionately
Alys Smith
A special message of love from me. Mary.10
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loc_jc.00046_large.jpg
June 21st. They have reached London
safely. Mr. Smith much better for the voyage.
Correspondent:
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."
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Walt Whitman Esq, | 328 Mickle Street | Camden | New Jersey | U.S. America. It
is postmarked: London S.W. | 10 | Jun | 88; New York | Jun | 8[illegible]; Paid | A | [illegible]; Camden N.[illegible] | Ju[illegible] 2[illegible] | 6 AM | 88 | Rec'd. [back]
- 2. 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). [back]
- 3. Karin Stephen (née Catherine
Elizabeth Costelloe) (1889–1953) was the second daughter of Mary Whitall
Smith Costelloe. She would become a British psychoanalyst and psychologist, and
the wife of Adrian Stephen (psychoanalyst and prominent member of the Bloomsbury
Group, and brother of Virginia Woolf). [back]
- 4. Rachel Pearsall Conn Costelloe
(1887–1940), known as Ray Strachey, was the first daughter of Mary Whitall
Smith Costelloe. She would later become a feminist writer and politician. [back]
- 5. 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). [back]
- 6. Ernest Percival Rhys
(1859–1946) was a British author and editor; he founded the Everyman's
Library series of inexpensive reprintings of popular works. He included a volume
of Whitman's poems in the Canterbury Poets series and two volumes of Whitman's
prose in the Camelot series for Walter Scott publishers. For more information
about Rhys, see Joel Myerson, "Rhys, Ernest Percival (1859–1946)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 7. Smith may be referring to
Rhys's sister Edith. Edwin Haviland Miller speculates that the "Edith" Whitman
refers to in his June 26, 1887, letter to Rhys is
Rhys's sister. See especially note 2. [back]
- 8. Olive Schreiner (1855–1920)
was born in South Africa and became an author who was well known for her
writings on gender, race, and class, as well as those opposed to British
Imperialism in South Africa. Though she wrote a number of political works, she
is now probably best known for her novel The Story of an
African Farm and her feminist non-fiction tract Woman
and Labour (Carolyn Burdett, "Introduction," Olive
Schreiner [Tavistock:Northcote House Publishers, Ltd, 2013],
1–11). [back]
- 9. Mary Oakes Davis (1837 or
1838–1908) was Whitman's housekeeper. For more, see Carol J. Singley,
"Davis, Mary Oakes (1837 or 1838–1908)," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 10. The postscript, added by
Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe, appears in the upper-left corner of the first page
of the letter. [back]