Weaver, James B

English

The Palimpsest

Medicine for the Soul

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Volume 14 | Number 1 Article 4
1-1-1933
Medicine for the Soul
James B. Weaver
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Weaver, James B. "Medicine for the Soul." The Palimpsest 14 (1933), 19-27.
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Medicine for the Soul
Over the entrance to the library in ancient 
Thebes was inscribed the legend used as the title 
for this story. Thus are we reminded that then, 
as now and forever, for men tossed amidst the 
ups and downs of this unstable sphere ’, there is 
no haven that better ministers to the vexed spirit 
than the supreme art and accumulated wisdom 
held in solution in the best books of the world — 
the tale in verse and prose of humanity’s reaction 
to the impact of Life.
The blood inheritance of James Depew Ed- 
mundson, flowing down on the father’s side 
through many honored generations in Britain and 
on the mother’s side for centuries through a dis­
tinguished line of the French nobility, was of no 
common quality. The privations and meager 
facilities of pioneer days seemed but to whet to an 
even keener edge the hunger of the boy for books 
and the acquisition of knowledge. His schooling 
was never more than that of the frontier country 
school of 1845-50. But to make up for scant 
facilities were certain contacts, notably Uncle 
David and his love of literature, and on the boy’s 
part the kind of intellectual hunger that marked
2 0 THE PALIMPSEST
Lincoln’s boyhood. The boy was very shy, a 
quality that all the years have not diminished. 
Very poor and physically delicate, the necessity 
of training to meet life bore in upon his conscious­
ness. A strong, fine spirit rallied to the task. His 
life and remarkable intellectual interests are a 
perfect illustration of how the tough, strong fiber 
of the spirit may find mastery in the battle of life 
and flower in superb culture.
From the first he was passionately devoted to 
the best literature and, as a specialty, the correct 
use of English. He tells yet with vivid zest how 
at school he revelled in the analysis of sentences 
by means of the old scheme of diagrams on the 
blackboard — like so many diminutive zeppelins. 
He still maintains there is no better plan to mark 
the relation of words. He came as youth and in 
early manhood to avoid incorrect English as a 
deep humiliation. Slovenly use of one’s mother 
tongue was a real offense. Thus, that letterhead, 
not of his designing— “Bloomer & Edmundson, 
Attorneys at Law Real Estate and Insurance 
Agents’ — jarred upon his sensibility. To make 
certain of his contention that the word “and’ 
should have been inserted before the words “Real 
Estate ”, he wrote to Cyrus Northrup, then Pro­
fessor of English at Yale, and later president of 
the University of Minnesota. Northrup agreed.
MEDICINE FOR THE SOUL 21
It is with a positive pang that he refers to the 
Iowa motto on the Washington Monument which 
reads: “Her affections, like the rivers of her bor­
ders flow to an inseparable union”, whereas Enoch 
Eastman’s utterance was: “The affections of her 
people, like the rivers of her borders, flow to an 
inseparable union”. He is hurt to see sacrificed 
the perfect balance that marked the real utter­
ance, and the mutilation of the author’s lovely 
phrase.
In the fifties he acquired his first Webster’s 
Dictionary, for which he paid $4.50. Only an in­
satiable hunger could explain so prodigious an 
expenditure in his circumstances. He has owned 
every edition that has since been issued. Through 
the years he has used and accumulated perhaps 
the most remarkable private library in the State of 
authorities on correct English and of anthologies 
of famous quotations.
Mr. Edmundson has long taken a great host of 
magazines. During a recent call I noted these on 
his study table: the National Geographic, Atlan­
tic, Popular Mechanics, Pathfinder, Forum, North 
American Review, Iowa Journal of History and 
Politics, Literary Digest, American, and the Times 
Book Review. He has Scribners, Harpers, and 
the Century bound from the beginning until a few 
years ago. He has from the first the Chicago
22 THE PALIMPSEST
Daily News Almanac, the World Almanac, ex­
cept the first six or seven volumes, the Tribune 
Almanac from 1838 to its suspension of publica­
tion in recent years, the Iowa Official Register 
from the issue prepared by Frank D. Jackson in 
1886, the Annals of Iowa (all three series), 
bound, from the first in 1863, the Biographical Di­
rectory of the American Congress including every 
member from 1774 to 1927. For years he has 
subscribed to the New York Times Book Review. 
Each week he turns eagerly to “Queries and An­
swers’’, where are set out the questions of those 
eager mortals asking where can be found the poem 
containing the lines “ . . . ”, and the answers 
that come from all about the rim of the globe. He 
has furnished many a clew and launched many a 
question.
A year or two ago, before he arose from his 
bed, there came marching into his consciousness at 
ninety-two years the words, “While Greece arose 
divinely free and dauntless as her own dark sea.’’ 
Where did they come from? Who said it? For 
more than a year there was no rest for Edmund- 
son — searching, searching everywhere. Every­
body else searched too — librarians, Times Book 
Review editors, “sharks” who make such quests a 
specialty. No use. No clew. Could I have made 
them up? Absurd, no such luck! Thrilling
MEDICINE FOR THE SOUL 23
words, spurring the imagination! But at last, and 
here at home came the answer. Forrest B. 
Spaulding, Des Moines librarian, found the lines 
in Robert Montgomery’s “Starlight on Mara­
thon”. So peace settled again at 3333 Grand.
The “Lexicographer’s Column” in the Literary 
Digest is a perennial delight. With its famous 
editor, Frank H. Vizetelly, a lexicographer of 
world renown and editor of the Standard Diction­
ary, Mr. Edmundson has enjoyed a friendship of 
nearly forty years. They engaged in much 
interesting correspondence from time to time on 
the use and origin of words. The following ex­
tract from a letter to Mr. Vizetelly in 1919 gives 
Edmundson’s attitude on the subject of the accu­
rate use of the mother tongue.
“I have for a long time thought that a practical 
and accurate knowledge of the Mother Tongue 
of a people, should stand at the head not only of 
its essential branches, but also of the so-called 
accomplishments. I cannot help thinking that 
such a knowledge would be the greatest accom­
plishment that could be acquired by a student. It 
also seems to me that teachers in both our common 
schools and our colleges give too little attention to 
the study of their Mother Tongue. I have before 
me as I write, an advertisement of a prominent 
Western College, in which it speaks of the Rocke-
2 4 T H E  P A LIM P S E S T
I
fellers, the Morgans, the Ames, the Goulds and 
others, the ‘Ames’ meaning the Ameses who were 
instrumental in the building of the Union Pacific 
Railroad. I really think such an error is inex­
cusable in the literature of such an institution.”
Mr. Edmundson has two books, highly prized, 
given to him by Vizetelly, namely: A Desk-Book 
of Twenty-five Thousand Words Frequently 
Mispronounced and Essentials of English Speech 
and Literature, the latter inscribed by the author, 
“To my good friend and kindly critic.” This 
friendship with a kindred spirit has been an un­
failing joy. From New York on November 21, 
1923, Mr. Vizetelly sent birthday greetings to his 
friend in Des Moines. “My dear Mr. Edmund­
son”, he wrote. On this, the Eighty-fifth Anni­
versary of your birth, I come as one who also 
serves’ to offer you my warmest congratulations.
“We have corresponded with each other for 
many years — almost thirty, I think, — and, not­
withstanding the fact that sometimes our views 
were at variance, not one line, nay, not even one 
word has passed between us that could mar that 
perfect amity born of mutual appreciation and 
friendly understanding that continues between us 
to this day.
“You who can look back to the times when rail­
roads were unknown, when steam navigation was
MEDICINE FOR THE SOUL 25
in its infancy, when the telegraph and telephone 
were yet undreamed, when mankind had not con­
quered the air or mastered the sea, have been 
blessed by an All-Wise Providence with a full­
ness of years that commands the good will of 
mankind and the love of all people.
“As you look back, well may you remind us 
that our years are spent as a tale that is told, and 
that the tale varies between man and man, in 
youth and age, in grief and joy, in laughter and 
tears, from day to day until the days roll into 
years — and the years, how quickly they pass!
“May the future hold for you a promise for 
greater blessings than the past, and looking back­
ward as you march toward the golden sunrise of a 
new dawn, may you find that Peace which pass- 
eth all understanding that brings comfort and con­
tentment to all who have trod in the steps of the 
Master.
God bless you!
Very heartily yours,
Frank H. Vizetelly“
Mr. Edmundson has for years been in frequent 
correspondence with authorities on English all 
about the country on correct phrasing and the 
origin of various quotations and poems. In one 
case, relating to John Luckey McCreery, once a 
resident of Iowa and the author of the well-known
2 6 THE PALIMPSEST
poem “There Is No Death”, attributed by Burton 
S. Stevenson, in the first edition of his Home Book 
of Verse, to Bulwer-Lytton, Edmundson collected 
the proofs and secured credit in later editions for 
McCreery, the true author. It was a common 
error, against which McCreery had protested for 
many years with slight success. Stevenson has 
since told the story of the controversy in his book 
of Famous Single Poems.
In many cases Edmundson has taken the pains 
to furnish information on authenticity of verse or 
quotation eagerly sought in some far corner of the 
nation. His collection of data relating to such 
matters is voluminous. Inquiries come to him con­
stantly and always arouse his keen interest and 
active cooperation. As recently as November, 
1932, came a request from Alfred H. Holt, In­
structor in English at Williams College, asking 
the pronunciation of the words “Iowa” and “Des 
Moines”. As to the former, Edmundson referred 
him to Frank Luther Mott’s fine article on the 
subject in the Iowa Journal of History and Poli~ 
tics. Such services give him the utmost delight, 
as does the perusal of Mr. Holt’s Wild Names I 
Have Met, just obtained.
Mr. Edmundson commissioned the well-known 
American sculptor, Sherry Edmundson Fry, to 
fashion a statue of the famous Iowa Indian, Chief
MEDICINE FOR THE SOUL 27
Mahaska, for presentation to the city of his youth. 
Of the working model the great sculptor Freder­
ick MacMonnies wrote to Mr. Edmundson on 
September 7, 1906, that it was “faithfully mod­
elled and well designed, and in the subsequent 
elaboration of the final large model will not fail to 
bring fame to its author and add beauty to your 
city.’ The small model received honorable men­
tion in the Paris Salon in 1906 and in the follow­
ing year the completed statue was awarded the 
gold medal. Mainly on the strength of this work 
came to Mr. Fry the coveted National Prize to 
Rome in 1908. The statue was presented in 1909. 
It stands in the public square in Oskaloosa and is 
regarded as one of the finest Indian statues 
extant.
Ja m e s  B. W e a v e r


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