Walt Whitman to Logan Pearsall Smith, 12 August [1890]

 loc_jc.00150_large.jpg Camden New Jersey U S America1 Aug: 12

Yr's recd2—thanks—it is delightful to hear f'm you & thro' you f'm all—Probably it will be better to do up the twelve books (perhaps others) in a parcel & send by express to 44 Grosvenor Road (as I do not know they c'd go that way to H.3) The money $58.80 has been sent me by ALS. Phila.4 Has been long hot weather but to-day & yesterday fine & cool.—I am as well as usual & writing a little—Best love to you & y'r dear father5 & M6 & A.7 Write whenever you can

Walt Whitman  loc_jc.00149_large.jpg

---

Notes

• 1. This postal card is addressed: Logan Smith | Friday's Hill | Haslemere Surrey | England. It is postmarked: Camden, [unclear] | Aug 12 | 8PM | 90. [back]
• 2. The letter Whitman is responding to is not extant. [back]
• 3. Smith confirmed that he had the books at Haslemere in his letter of October 3, 1890. [back]
• 4. Robert Pearsall Smith sent the money to Whitman through A.L. Smith of Philadelphia (Whitman's Commonplace Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). [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. 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]
• 7. 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]