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328 Mickle Street
Camden New Jersey U S America1
Sept 12 '87
Dear friend
Yours (including J A Symonds's2 printed note) has just reach'd
& been heartily welcomed by me—Thanks—I have had boxed & sent
over to you, a large plaster head by, Sidney Morse3, the
sculptor4—If convenient you are to donate this head to the Royal Academy, (or if you & Ernest
Rhys5 feel it best, I leave it to you, where & to
what public London gallery to put it)—The medallions and Emersons6 are your
own—except that I should like one of the medallions to go to Mary7 & her
husband8 with my love.
Nothing very new here—the weather is fine & has been so for many
weeks—I am well, for me—drive out quite a deal— the oysters come
& have come, & are invariably good & I thrive
on them— Dr Bucke9 is here, continues thro' the week
—Gilchrist 10 is here, leaves on the steamer
21st—
Love to you & dear Alys11—Logan has been to see
me lately, he looks splendidly12
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 letter is addressed:
Pearsall Smith | 40 Grosvenor Road | the Embankment | London s w | England. It
is postmarked: Camden, N. J. | SEP 12 | 430 PM | 87; London S W | (?) | SP 23 |
87; (?) | (?) | SP 23 37| AB; New York | SEP 12 (?). Whitman's address is
printed as follows in the lower left corner of the envelope: Walt Whitman, |
Camden, | New Jersey, | U.S. America. [back]
- 2. John Addington Symonds
(1840–1893), a prominent biographer, literary critic, and poet in
Victorian England, was author of the seven-volume history Renaissance in Italy, as well as Walt
Whitman—A Study (1893), and a translator of Michelangelo's
sonnets. But in the smaller circles of the emerging upper-class English
homosexual community, he was also well known as a writer of homoerotic poetry
and a pioneer in the study of homosexuality, or sexual inversion as it was then
known. See Andrew C. Higgins, "Symonds, John Addington [1840–1893]," Walt
Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
- 3. Sidney H. Morse (1832–1903)
was a self-taught sculptor as well as a Unitarian minister and, from 1866 to
1872, editor of The Radical. He visited Whitman in Camden
many times and made various busts of him. Whitman had commented on an earlier
bust by Morse that it was "wretchedly bad." For more on this, see Ruth L. Bohan,
Looking into Walt Whitman: American Art,
1850–1920 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press,
2006), 105–109. [back]
- 4. On August 27 Whitman gave
Sydney Morse $70 "to pay to caster for the 10 heads." Morse brought four of
the heads on September 2, one of which was sent to Richard Maurice Bucke
(Whitman's Commonplace Book; Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of
Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). According
to the tabulation in Whitman's Commonplace Book, the poet paid Morse $133 in
the next few months, presumably for expenses incurred in casting. [back]
- 5. 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]
- 6. Morse created small Whitman
medallions and made a small bust of Ralph Waldo Emerson; he gave copies to
Whitman. [back]
- 7. Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe
(1864–1945), daughter of Hannah Whitall and Robert Pearsall Smith, was a
political activist, art historian, and critic, whom Whitman once called his
"staunchest living woman friend." For more information about Costelloe, 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]
- 8. Benjamin Francis Conn Costelloe
(1854–1899), Mary's first husband, was an English barrister and Liberal
Party politician. [back]
- 9. 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]
- 10. 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]
- 11. 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]
- 12. See Whitman's follow-up
letter, sent out a few hours later that day (September
12, [1887]). [back]