WCP4179

Letter (WCP4179.4201)

[1]1

1, ETHELBERT ROAD,

BIRCHINGTON BAY,

THANET.

November 18th [1908]2

Dear Sir

I hope you will not be annoyed at my writing— I really know it is a great piece of presumption on my part. But I have just finished your most interesting book "My Life"3 & only wish there was yet another vol to go on with [2] it was so enjoyable— But the reason I am writing is, I am an old friend of the late Revd H W Flower’s— & by his advice looked into Spiritualism. I became most interested in it & worked quietly till I had proof positive that I was in touch with a very old friend of ours Dr James Aveling4 of Wimpole Street— who had died about [3] three years before— First came his automatic writing, then I became clairvoyant, & then clairaudient & now I can think to him with the

greatest ease. The writing came in his own hand— & thought as you knew Mr Flowers, and the Dr was a friend of his also. That you might like to see a little pamphlet that I wrote for him5— he wanted it for a few old friends & patients [4] especially for an old friend going abroad— & it was brought out in a great hurry— & although I took great care in correcting the proofs— It is full of [illeg.] errors, making it almost incoherent at times. But still I thought you might like to see it. Please do not think of troubling to acknowledge it. But as I am looked upon by so many of my friends as a kind of Witch, or mad, or bad [5] it was a real comfort to read & pass on to them your opinion of the subject.

Again wishing I have not annoyed you by writing[.]

I am dear Sir | Faithfully yours | Anna M. Jarvis6 [signature]

In ARW’s handwriting, “Answd”. The letter has not been found.
The 1905 of My Life has two volumes. The author seems to be referring to the 1908 edition.
Wallace, A. R. 1908. My life: A record of events and opinions. New edition, condensed and revised. London: Chapman & Hall.
Aveling, James Hobson (1828-1892). British physician who did a lot of work in women’s medical care in Sheffield and London.
Jarvis, Anna M. and Aveling, James Hobson. 1902. A Few Words on Spiritualism. It was in a copy of this book that this letter was inserted by Wallace.
Jarvis has not been identified.

Please cite as “WCP4179,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4179