loc_jc.00190_large.jpg
328 Mickle Street
Camden N.J.—USA.1
Sept:12
In addition to what I wrote & sent off a couple of hours ago:2 Dr Bucke3 has just been in to see me
& strongly suggests that the head4 ought to go to the
Kensington Museum (instead of the Royal Academy, or
any other place)
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 | 40 Grosvenor Road | the Embankment | London | S W |
England. It is postmarked: Camden, N.J. | Sep 12 | 6 PM | 87; Philadel[missing] | SEP | 12 | 1887 | PAID. [back]
- 2. See Whitman's letter to
Robert Pearsall Smith from earlier in the day on September 12, [1887]. [back]
- 3. 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]
- 4. A bust of Whitman by Sidney
H. Morse (1832–1903). For more on this, see Ruth L. Bohan, Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art, 1850–1920
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), 57–84; and
David Reynolds, Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural
Biography (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), 546–590. [back]