loc_jc.00221_large.jpg
Camden New Jersey
U S America1
May 10 '90
I am easier again for the present, after a severe whack again of the grip
—Enclosed four or five slips a little poemet—I wonder if it would be worth
while to send them around to the London papers, to be used if they think proper, on the morning of
the Queen's birth day—If you think so, send the slips round for me & let them take
their chances. Make the choice of papers yourself.
I have sent some2 to Ernest Rhys,3 & it might be worth while to see
him4—Some time now since I have heard from you or
Mary.5 Dr Bucke6 is to be here this coming week.
Best best remembrances
Walt Whitman
loc_jc.00222_large.jpg
loc_jc.00219_large.jpg
loc_jc.00220_large.jpg
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: R Pearsall Smith |
44 Grosvenor Road | the Embankment | London | England. It is postmarked: Camden
[illegible] | May 10 | 8 PM | 90,
London. S. W. | 26 | MY22 | 90, Philadelphia, PA | MAY10 | 11PM. [back]
- 2. This may be referring to a
letter from Whitman to Ernest Rhys of May 10,
1890. [back]
- 3. 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]
- 4. On this date Walt Whitman
received proofs of "For Queen Victoria's Birthday" and "On, on the Same, Ye Jocund
Twain!" The former appeared in the Philadelphia Public
Ledger on May 22 (see William Sloane Kennedy, The
Fight of a Book for the World (1926), 271) and also in The Critic 16 (May 24, 1890): 262. It was printed in the
Pall Mall Gazette on May 24, thanks to the labors of
Rhys, which he recorded at somewhat precious length in his May 24, 1890, letter. Whitman sent the second poem
to the Century; see May 12,
1890, letter to Richard Maurice Bucke. R. W. Gilder of The Century rejected the poem in his letter to the poet
of May 14, 1890, and the poem was eventually
published in the June 9, 1891, issue of Once a
Week. [back]
- 5. Mary Whitall Smith Costelloe
(1864–1945) 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]
- 6. 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]