FEINBERG/WHITMAN
Box 16 Folder 12

GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE

Smith, Logan Pearsall 
June 1887 - Aug. 1891 (DCN 208)
&undatedCamden New Jersey
June 26 '87

Dear Logan

Nothing special to
write about -- yet I tho't
I would send you a line -- I
suppose they are all over there
in London, having good times
-- the baby included -- dear baby!
henceforth not the least among
the objects of our interest -- 
-- Showery here to-day -- I tho't
of getting out with my horse &
rig for a drive -- but this
prevents -- I am still tied to
the house & chair -- a bad
spell the last ten days -- heat --
but much less bad yesterday &
to-day -- Mr Morse still here
sculpting me & H Gilchrist
with the portrait -- both please me.
-- I have born two little poems
-- which you will see in due time.
It is middle of afternoon -- have
had five of the NY and Phila.
Sunday papers, reading all day
-- also looking out of the window -- 
-- the mocking bird over the way is
singing gay & fast -- God bless you
Logan boy -- Walt WhitmanLogan
Pearsall
Smith.through the trees coming to an 
open space & finally ending
under the eaves of a low,
many gabled old house.
Behind there is an old garden
with high walls in the form
of a square [?] which are
covered with peach and cherry
trees growing like vines over
them.
I try to study in the mornings,
the afternoons I give to shooting, 
fishing or tennis. Only I
find that afternoons of that

Sept 7 1888
Shwynbarried
Rhayader
Radmorshire

[*44 Grosvenor Road
Westminster Embankment, S.W.*]
Dear Mr. Whitman,
I hope the
summer has left you tolerably well
at least, your occasional postal
cards have been a comfort.
We have been having a most
delightful time all together.
The chance of an advertisement
brought us, family, horses,
servants and baby into this
remote corner of Wales& set us down in the old house
of a reduced country squire.
It rained for a week after we
came, but we lit fires & unpacked
our three volumed
novels and tried to pretend that
we were enjoying it. Then
fortunately it cleared up and
we began driving & playing
tennis, I went fishing with
our vicar's son and soon
the charm of the hills, the

country lanes and the air
made us very well contented
with our lot a good many
of our neighbours (anyone within
12 miles is a neighbour)
have called on us & have
turned out [to] be very pleasant
people though their
intellectual horizon is a little
limited perhaps.
To think of us you must imagine
a spur of a healthy mountain
covered with fine old trees, a 
window carriage drivea tennis party at
the vicar's, so good
bye for the present.
The paper you sent 
Mary came to hand
O.K. many thanks.
With much love
Logan.
when will "Autumn
Boughs" be out?kind have a great tendency
to swallow up the mornings
Marichen and Frank
Costelloe & I however have
been reading one of
Sophocle's plays together
just now the Costelloes
are off in Scotland on
a visit.
We are just off toBalliol College, Nov. 30, 1888
Oxford
Dear Mr. Whitman,
I wonder if I have anything to chronicle that will interest
you. Yesterday was Thanksgiving so I went up to (?) dine & to stay all night
with the family. We were all there, including the baby, who had been especially
taught to say "Uncle" for the occasion. After the exile's turkey & plum pudding -
we had to do without the pumpkin pie of course - we gave a play that they had written.
It was called "Wilhelmina's Lehrjahrs" - an imitation of Wilhelm Meister - & depicted
the various experiences of a young American girl in London. She takes up
various enthusiasms & joins various brotherhoods in succesion. Alys was the heroine
& Frank Costelloe & I appeared as the apostles of various creeds. In the first
scene I explained to her the esoteric meanings of aesthetic symbolism, & she makes 
up her mind to devote herself to the study of drapery & colour. But that shortly
palls, & in the next scene, she appears in the country! travelling around in Home
Rule van & delivering speeches on the Irish question. Costelloe takes the chair &
introduces her with an eloquent address to the two old market women that compose
the meeting. She then makes her address, but in the middle of one half the meeting
gives a snort & goes out, & at the end the other half asks some questions that she
is quite unable to answer. So she then, having met a young man who convinces
her that the only way in which the stage can be reformed is by all educated people
going on it, determines to become an actress. This turns out in the next scene to
be no greater success & at last she is converted to Socialism. This goes all very
well for a while until the socialist league decides that all women must dress a-like in dresses made out of buckram. At this the American girl gives out, says
that she is willing to dreess cheaply, but not unbecomingly, rises in her wrath
& says that she is going back to America. 
The play was really very funny, especially as it was a take off on some of our
friends, whom Mariechen had invited to see it. We half expected, as the play went
on that, the socialists, politicians, & aesthetes in the audience would get up and
go out, but everybody took it in good nature. Ernest Rhys was there & told us about 
seeing you last June.
Coming down in the train to Oxford I read Specimen Days & Collect. I am so glad
that the idea came to you of printing those notes, in all the books that I have
been reading lately, Greek, Latin, or French, there has been nothing that has
done me so much good. I hope there are more Specimen Days forthcoming, indeed, is
not a promise of future instalments promised by the word Specimen? I think it means
that what you have published are only the samples or specimens of what you are going
to give us later. The student who lives just above me is reading Leaves of
Grass for the first time, & comes down in the evening sometimes & reads it out to me.
He is one of our best orators at the "Union" & reads very well, you would enjoy
hearing him.
I hope the autumn has not been hard on you . . here it is very wet & dismal, but
I manage to be out of doors a good deal every day, in the healthy Oxford way.
You must pardon my type writer & my gossiping letter, but I wanted you to know that
that I & all of us often think of you & talk about you.
With much love
Logan P. SmithOct. 21 1888        Balliol College

Dear Mr. Whitman,

I hope this letter 
will reach you in good health
and spirits -- I wish I could
share some of mine with you!
I am back again at Oxford and
at work once more.  I realize more
and more what a privilege it
is to be here, so many chances
for education and development.
I am studying Greek & Latinliterature & Greek art, I want to
soak myself in the spirit of the
classical times.

Apart from one's studies there is only
too much that is delightful here.
I row on the river every afternoon,
all the men in the college who
do not know how to row in
the right way and yet want to 
learn, go down in the afternoons
& sit in the barge that belongs
to their particular college, & the
experienced oarsmen take them out,
four at a time & "coach" them.

We have a debating society also
which meets once a week to discuss
the questions of the day.
Some of these young Englismen
speak certainly very well.  Last
night we debated whether the
government ought to suppress
Zola's novels -- there were only
three of us to defend the
cause of realism!

Father start to-morrow to
drive from Llwynbarrid to
London with Alys, Madge &Evelyn Nordhoff.  I expect them
here in Oxford in about three
days.  I enclose a map of their
journey.  We are having splendid
October weather so they ought to
have a good time.

The Costelloes are in London now
I believe.  Mother has gone to
Broadlands for Lord Mount Temple's 
funeral, he died rather suddenly
last week.

Yours with much love
Logan Pearsall SmithJan 5th 1889  
Ashfield House
West Malvern

Dear Mr. Whitman

I am perched up high
on the side of Malvern Hill in a
ridiculous little red brick house, and
out of the window I see a great
plain being splashed with rain.  I
am paying a visit -- it is vacation --
to Benjamin Jowett, the Head of
my college, a venerable and dreadful
person in whose presence we alltremble at Oxford.  But here he is
very good, and talks about the old
times when England was full of
venerable abuses.  It makes one realize
how much your generation -- my
father's generation -- has done for
progress, I only hope we young
ones will do half as well.
I hear of you from Alys, she is
our great tie with America now.
I have put myself into the
machine at Oxford, and 
shall not be turned out for about
two years, then I hope to see
America again.

My father is extremely well, and
enjoying life.  Mrs. Costelloe
has got a pair of spectacles,
and is as strong as she ever
was.  Whenever I go away
from London Ray Costelloe
grows visibly in the meantime.
I met the other day a greatfriend of yours, Mr. Yorke Powell,
he is coming over to see you
sometime.  He spoke [with] of "November
Boughs" with enthusiasm, some of
the prose he set in an
examination at Oxford.

If I were at home I am
sure all would send love -- as I
do -- from your friend

Logan Pearsall SmithCamden Tuesday Aug 10 pm 1887
Dear boy Logan
Your letter has come & is
welcomed - Nothing specially new
with me - I have stood the hot
weather pretty well & have just
eaten my dinner with zest - young
Gilchrist is here yet - the portrait
is ab't finished - good - he expects
to take it to London for the May
opening Royal Academy - I hear from
your folks in London - how happy
Mary must be! - Quite a good
many visitors come here - they talk
& I talk - as I write it is cloudy 
& comparatively cool & I am enjoying all.
The courier just brings me a letter from
Dr. Bucke - he is well & busy - comes this
way early in September - Love to you
dear friend
Walt Whitman1887UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION
(Union Postale Universelle)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(Étsts-Unis d'Amérique)
WRITE ONLY THE ADDRESS ON THIS SIDE

CAMDEN, N.J.
AUG 12                 2
8PM
90

Logan Smith
Friday's Hill
Haslemere Surrey
EnglandCamden New Jersey US America Aug 12
Yr's recd - 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).
The money $58.80 has been sent me by
ALS. Phila. Has been long hot weather
but today & yesterday fine & cool -
I am as well as usual & writing a little
Best love to you & y'r dear father & M. & A
Write whenever you can. Walt WhitmanOct 3rd 1890
Telegraph
Fernhurst 
Sussex
Friday's Hill House
Haslemere
Dear Mr. Whitman
Thanks for your
postal card, we are always so glad
when we come down to breakfast
and find something there with your
good black hand writing - so unlike
anybody else's as I write you the
books came safely to hand andare greatly appreciated by our friends who
ordered them, and that splendid complete
volume you sent father that is
a book! You know how to get
out such nice editions - there is no 
one who has nicer ones.
We have just been having a party
of about a dozen young people
staying with us to help in an
"opera" which we wrote and performed
last Saturday. It was about Oxford,

sharing how some women students
got possession of a man's college
and turned the men out.
But alas, when the women were
well in they began quarelling -
some wishing to be serious and
study, & some to have a good 
time & in the end they all
eloped with a handsome undergraduate
and the men got
back their college. It was
very amusing - my part was to 
dance a ballet, which Idid, in full ballet costume.
We have had a lovely summer
here all together ,with visits
from lots of friends - each of whom
has brought some interesting word
with him.
In a week now I go back to
Oxford to Ballid College, for
my last year. It is a dear
place, I shall hate to leave it
all send love. 
Yours affectionately,
Logan Pearsall SmithOct. 27 1890
13 Museum Terrace
Oxford
Dear Mr. Whitman,
I hope this will
find you well or at least as well
as usual. Our delightful Summer 
is over, my people are in 
Sweden, and I am back here
in Oxford again. It is curious 
how the old, town wakes up
when the Term begins. Thestreets fill up with students, the
professors begin lecturing, the
games & sports all begin, and
the river is covered with
boats. It reminds me of
those things you see in
shop windows or museums
where you put five cents
in the slot and everything
begins going of a 
sudden. The new "Leaves

of Grass are very much
appreciated here - indeed
they are very nice.
Last night I sat up late
reading L. of G. to a dear
friend of mine who is paying
me a visit. Today has
been a glorious, fresh october
day, and as we have 
walked about we have 
felt so braced up & cheerful byon reading. After all - though
he does say it in a university 
town - life is more than thesies
about life, or pictures of it,
or learning or rhymes. And even
over Oxford there is the blue 
unsophisticated sky.
With love as ever
Logan Pearsall SmithAlpenkurort
Grindelwald
Hotel Et Pension De L'ours (Bear)
J. Boss, Proprietor
Dec. 29th 1890
Dear Mr. Whitman
This is rather late I am afraid
to wish you a Merry Christmas - or even a
happy New Year - but I had forgotten
all about Christmas till it was on me. 
I have come here to Switzerland to have
a little winter, such as one gets in 
America, the winter in England is a poor
affair generally, but I see in the papers
that it is cold enough there now. My
family live happily in London, though it
is always fog there when there is frost -
I should think they would choke, but
they seem to like it. But I don't, so

I packed up my books and came here. I am
summer Grindelwald is one of the most crowded
of the Swiss places but noe, in the winter there
are only a few people, about all English, who come
here for the shooting and cousting. We are in a 
lark, surrounded by tremendous mountains, and the
sun has not yet got high enough to shine in
yet. The wind never blows, but we have day
after day of clear cold weather, when one feels so
well and strong. We have a very jolly party - five
or six people from Oxford - a master from one of the
great English schools with one of his boys, an 
English member of Parliament or two, and several
ladies.
The Costelloes have gone to Italy and Alys
with them, and they write that they
are having a most delightful time there
among the churches and pictures. Alys 
is going to stay on a month & learn Italian
& then in February she is going to Sicily 
with my mother.
The "Parnell Cruises" has been the one great
topic of late. At first we feared that 
Home Rule was dead, but now, since
the election of Kilberry, things are lookingletter, and it may not be so bad after all.
But it has been most exciting - certainly the
Irish make politics dramatic. It always seems
to be the unexpected that occurs. Mrs. Costelloe
does a great deal of speaking, and is getting
quite a name.
How did you like the American elections? I
was delighted, it seems to me that the time
has come for the Republicans to go all my
American friends - young men who have gone
in for politics - are working with the Democratic
party.
Your books were so much appreciated in Oxford,
and that great me sent my father
is certainly a royal book, are you 
writing anything else?
I wish I had got this letter off in 
time to wish you a happy Christmas -
but you must accept my somewhat 
tardy letter as if it had come earlier.
Ever yours with love
Logan Pearsall Smithsee
notes
July 31
1891
Walt Whitman
328 Mickle St
Camden
NJ
U.S. AmericaCamden NJ
Apr 20
3PM
1891
Rec'd
New York
Apr
20
Paid 
G
AllTelegraphic Address,
Fernhurst
Sussex
Friday's Hill House
Haslemere.
Dear Mr. Whitman
Just a line to tell
you that we are all well. We
have come to the country for
Easter, and it is most pleasant,
things are just beginning to
come out, and the birds are
arriving. The words are 
full of promises, anemmes, anddaffodils - I wish we could send
you some.
Alys and mother have got home
from Sicily, and I am here 
from Oxford.
A very nice etching of you has 
just arrived from Leon Richeton.
He has painted 300, and is
selling them. He says he
has sent one to you.

Mother and I have been
planting things in our garden
to-day I really think I
should enjoy during a
little gardening - I mean to
try it some day.
This is my last term at Ozford -
what dear place, after that I
shall be free, and may turn 
up in America before long.
There is so much of the raw
material of literature in America -
so much as yet unexpressed. I 
am anxious to try my hand 
in a modest way at it. The
Quaker community in which I was
brought up interests me immensely -
I have always felt that the traditions
of Philadelphia were much better material
than the New England Hawthorne
made so much of.
I hope you keep well, much love 
from all here, dear Mr. Whitman
Logan Pearsall Smithsee notes
Sept 21
1891
Haslemere
C
Au 8
91
Walt Whitman 
328 Mickle St
Camden N.J.
U.S. AmericaAug. 8th 91
Telegraphic Address.
Fernhurst.
Sussex.
Friday's Hill House
Haslemere.
Dear Mr. Whitman
We have just
had a visit from Dr. Bucke,
and we were so glad to hear
from him all about you. In 
furnishing our house here we 
have got three of those N.Y.
photographs of your framed
together, hanging in ourdining room, and it almost feels
as if you were with us
sometimes. It is delightful to 
see Dr. Bucke again, he is so
fresh and original and individual
in everything he says and does.
I am taking this summer as
a rest, I have finished my
work at Oxford; and in the
autumn I shall begin

writing - I feel that there 
is a great deal to be
said about America,
about England and Oxford
and many things.
The Costelloes are abroad
now - Ms. Costelloe has
got tremendously interested
in art - especially Italian
art, and means to makeart criticism her life work. 
There is a new school of art
critics, who follow an I tahan,
mnelli, and judge pictures, not
so much by the draments
about them, as by the techniques
of painter. It is most interesting,
and there is a good deal of
work to be done in it.
We are all well, and send
much love.
Your affectionate friend
Logan Pearsall SmithParis 15 Rue du Summand
Nov 22
Dear Mr. Whitman
I often wonder 
how you are getting on, with the
approach of winter? I hope it 
will find you in a comfortable 
criticism.
I have come here to Paris for
the winter, leaving Oxford at
last. Paris is the greatcenter for art now of all Europe -
there are thousands of arts students
here from all the world. a great
deal of good work is being produced, 
and the atmosphere is very exhilarating.
Next to the French
the best work is done by the 
Swedes & the Americans - there
seems to be a real burst of 
life among the Northern people -
the Swedes, Norwegians & Finns,

and Ibsen is not an isolated
phenomenon. The American work
here is very strong - there
are a number of young men
who have real genius, I think.
I am going this afternoon
to see the young Brooklyn sculptor
who is making the great
fountain for the Chicago exhibition -
it is to cover acres &
dispense Mississippis!However, he is not frightened by
the job, but has a splendid design.
America setting high on a 
barge, that is rowed by
gigantic female figures.
They are all well in England I
think - my mother is paying a short
temperance visit to N.Y. Boston &
Chicago with an English friend of 
hers, but we expect her back
shortly now.
Good-bye dear Mr. Whitman
yours affectionately
Logan Pearsall Smith