Showing 68 results

c/o Dr Howitt, Goldsmith Street, Nottingham. Dated 20 July, 1904 - Adds a bit more to the all father discussion, mentions Billy Wombat, who lived at the Mission Station, and Julaba, who lived with Howitt for a long time; contrasts their situation with that of [Baldwin] Spencer's Arunta.

24 Ladbroke Gardens, Notting Hill, W. Dated 13 July, 1904 - Thanks him for his letter and continues the discussion of the belief in the tribal all father, including mention of the 'mungan-ngaur' among the Kurnai; regrets he did not discuss this matter with [Baldwin] Spencer and does not see why Frazer should excuse Spencer's letter; his daughter [Mary] has been helping him go over the proofs but is sure there will be something overlooked when they receive the revise; with a page with an addition to the text [of his book 'The Native Tribes of South East Australia'] about the all father.

24 Ladbroke Gardens, Notting Hill, W. Dated 12 July, 1904 - Thanks him for the trouble he has taken on the Attic Tribes but has decided to omit the whole section [of his book 'Native Tribes of South East Australia'], and will write to [Lorimer] Fison to explain his reasons; has written a paragraph defending the 'All Father business' in view of [Baldwin] Spencer's objections; went to see Mr [William Napier?] Shaw [at the Meteorological Office?] but he was away and he found nothing of use, at the British Museum he found the Queensland Rain Map which he sends Frazer.

Clovelly, Metung, Victoria. Dated 4 August, 1902 - Thanks him for his help in reading his manuscript [for 'The Native Tribes of South East Australia']; spent a good evening with [Baldwin] Spencer, who gave a successful lecture on his journey with illustrations by lantern slides and phonographic reproduction of songs; [Lorimer] Fison is in financial difficulties.

Clovelly, Metung, Victoria. Dated 2 April, 1906 - Thanks him for 'Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship'; has been busy as Chairman of a Royal Commission in the Coal Industry but will take notice of [Andrew] Lang's 'Search of the Totem', has a reply ready to send off as to the 'pirrauru', the undivided commune, his attack on Frazer and himself, and other matters; [Baldwin] Spencer will join in when he has time; asks Frazer to help distribute 500 copies of his letter to members of Anthropological societies, journals and newspaper; May is in Melbourne with him and they express their thanks for their kindness during their visit to Cambridge; [Lorimer] Fison is slightly better but unable to do any mental work; Spencer is well but Howitt fears he is overworking himself.

Clovelly, Metung. Dated 12 March, 1904 - Is coming to London with his daughter May; suggests [Baldwin] Spencer knows more about the ceremony of circumcision and subincision, and the knocking out the tooth is in his chapter on Ceremonies of Initiation; did not pay attention to totemism before, but has found a survival in the Kurnai, and is annoyed he did not learn it before, but totems are not prominent in their society.

Clovelly, Metung, Victoria. Dated 11 October, 1902 - Is sending a draft of a chapter on Medicine Men, and has two others ready to send [for his book 'Native Tribes of South East Australia']; [Baldwin] Spencer writes that he is troubled by the financial condition of the University [of Melbourne?]; comments on the economic crisis, which he has foreseen and is glad that it has come, that it may inaugurate a better system.

Clovelly, Metung, Victoria. Dated 22 April, 1902 - Is sending a copy of a chapter of his book and asks for his comments; is living in a cottage at the Gippsland Lakes, and is happy to think he has a duplicate if fire strikes his cottage; hopes to finish 'Native Tribes of South Eastern Australia' by the end of this year; hears that [Baldwin] Spencer is looking well after his return from his expedition; is waiting for [Andrew] Lang's 'Magic and Realism' before saying anything; a recent letter from Lang did not mention the dispute with E. S. Hartland.

Dated April 10 [1902] - Sends [Alfred] Howitt's note to Fison dated 7 April, 1902 [transcribed] which describes where he is in his work and his plan to send the chapter on the Great and Local organisation to Frazer; regrets being absent when Spencer and Gillen returned.

Finch Street, East Malvern, Melbourne. Dated 17 October, 1901 - He has gone through one of his chapters [of his work for his book 'Native Tribes of South East Australia'?] relating to the 'Mura-Muras' with [Lorimer] Fison and has made numerous changes after getting further information from Rev. Otto Siebert; so far the book is about 600 pages; has seen Andrew Lang's remarks on Frazer's work, and doesn't think his inferences are warranted; his daughter [Mary] has prepared a paper for the Folk Lore Society on some legends of the Dieri tribe; is looking forward to [Baldwin] Spencer's return from his expedition in January.

Melbourne - Has been going through [A. W.] Howitt's letters but doesn't think his notes are ready for publication as he still had research to do, and was working to show that exogamy was the rule, which he doesn't think needs proving again, despite R. H. Matthews' [recte Mathews] papers to the contrary; Matthews has been in communication with miners and cattle people in Central Australia who have a profound contempt for the natives and are unreliable sources of information. The letter continues, dated Sept. 29. He has received the letter Frazer wrote Miss Howitt about the inadvisability of reprinting Howitt's old papers, and he agrees; is interested to hear he is leaving Liverpool for Cambridge, remembers a longing he had at first to be back amongst old places, given he was in a modern town where nothing dated back more than fifty years; has been too busy for anthropological work but hopes to try Western Australia, as Central Australia and the Macdonnel Ranges are now 'spoilt'; Strehlow's papers are to be published, edited by [Moritz] von Leonhardi, 'a very uneducated man'; [Andrew] Lang has endeavored in van to draw him, and Matthews is now exploting his and [Francis] Gilllen's field as he had Howitt's; misses Howitt, as he has no one to discuss anthropologic matters with, as Gillen only comes over once every two years.

Finch Street, East Malvern, Melbourne. Dated 25 February, 1901 - Thanks him for the GB, which arrived in the mail, and for the mention of his daughter [Mary]'s work on Australian folklore and legends which they still hope to see printed; will see [Baldwin] Spencer before he heads to Central Australia, and [Lorimer] Fison as well; hopes to be able to devote a year to the completion of his work on the organization of native tribes.

Melbourne - [A. W.] Howitt has shown him a letter from Professor Rhys in which he notes that often in fairy stories all the fairies are women, and believes that this must be a very primitive idea; notes that [Andrew] Lang has ridiculed the idea of 'savages' not being astonished at a community of women; believes that the old folk custom of women who go to shrines to become fertile and the saying that babies came from the parsley bed are based on the same essential idea of conception as the Arunta; he has told Howitt that it is 'his sacred ethnologic duty to punch, pound and pulverize [Lang] until he hasn't a whole bone in his body'.

Melbourne - A long 12 page letter: has been extremely busy at the University of Melbourne, recasting courses of study and instituting new ones, and arranging the Jubilee; describes a holiday on the Tasman glacier in New Zealand; [A. W.] Howitt is much exercised by [Andrew] Lang's publications and thinks him 'entirely unreliable and unscrupulous' in handling evidence; has looked at Howitt's papers and stands by what he sent to Frazer; thinks that Lang put [N. W.] Thomas in touch with [Carl] Strehlow the missionary so that he would quote him as a source, which he had not done, disapproves of Strehlow's use of 'altjira' for 'god'; will ignore for now the article by Lang in the [Journal of the Anthropological Institute] seems to be an attack on Spencer's address on totemism; discusses the ignorance of the cause of pregancy as noted in Frazer's articles in 'Fortnightly' ['The Beginnings of Religion and Totemism among the Australian Aborigines'?], pointing out that the 'savage' is a most logically minded individual and that it is natural to think that as not all sexual intercourse results in pregnancy, that they are not related matters; disagrees entirely with Lang's statement that encountering a group made up solely of women and children would astonish 'Australian savages'; Lang appears to especially dislike his and [Francis] Gillen's work; discusses Frazer's theory of conceptional totemism, and agrees with him that exogamy forms no part of totemism; wishes it were possible to call back to life extinct tribes and begin the study of them anew, 'the incompetent observer, such as [Samuel] Gason, does anthropology much harm'.

'Nai Kele Kele' [on mourning stationery] - Writes about the death of her father Lorimer Fison, will send book and booklets Frazer had sent Fison to Sir George Le Hunte and share with him news of Professor Spencer taking up the Western investigation.

Trevôn, Beaumarais, Anglesey - Thanks her for her letter of sympathy [on the death of her brother Baldwin Spencer], asks her if she has seen any articles about her brother in the 'Hibbert Journal', and wonders about other scientific journals notices might have appeared in.

"Treberfedd", Bodorgan, Anglesey - Thanks him for his nice letter following the death of her brother Baldwin Spencer and in response to her query regarding journals and notices referring to him; will write to E. N. Fallaize.

Accompanied by the envelope.

Manuscript draft in Frazer's hand, with corrections, of a speech given 9 Dec. 1903, using information from as yet unpublished material by Spencer, Gillen and A. W. Howitt.

Album of 39 cuttings about or mentioning Frazer, including news items about his honorary doctorate from the University of Athens; with reviews of 'Aftermath', including one by R. R. Marett in the 'Observer', and two books for which he wrote introductions: 'Bantu Beliefs and Magic' by C. W. Hobley and 'The Native Tribes of Central Australia' by Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen; also, an obituary of George William Macfarlane and a news item about putting a plaque on Edward Clodd's house.

Review of a book by Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, with an introduction by Frazer.

Trinity College - Thanks Cook [for his critical review of the second edition of 'The Golden Bough'], asks if he would look over his revised theory, is forwarding two letters from Baldwin Spencer on the question of the Australian Daramulum [not present] and one from Miss Burne, editor of 'Folk-lore' relating to the Murra-murra among the Dieri [not present].

Woodcote, Godalming - Miss Buckley has sent the 'Fasti' with the corrections in slips, will send Frazer a revise in slips; praises the version, sends it to him with pencil notes [housed separately, as FRAZ/21/62]; hopes when he will not make further corrections because of the expense, tells him in private Mr Loeb finds his loss will exceed £200,000; is concerned about the notes, would like to keep the book to one volume, he can be authoritatively brief as 'your word stands of itself', and a single volume will reach so many more students.

Accompanied by two pages of notes by Frazer about the arrangements for the Loeb edition ("Critical notes: all or some or none?") and another with notes about Baldwin Spencer publications by Frazer; as well as the envelope. [Both items were previously housed as Frazer/14/65-69, but logically belong here.]

Hatherlow, Oxford Road, Birkdale, Southport - Thanks him for his tribute to her brother Baldwin Spencer in 'The Times'; it is hard to believe he will not return from Tierra del Fuego; and hard that he was not allowed time to return and print his notes from his research, but he died as he would have chosen, 'in harness'. Accompanied by the envelope redirected from the Royal Society to Queen Anne's Mansions to the Albemarle Club.

Woodside, Cove, Dumbartonshire - Has heard from Dr Marett that Frazer has sent a chapter from Lausanne [for 'Spencer's Scientific Correspondence with Sir J G Frazer and Others']; her father [Baldwin Spencer] would have been pleased; her husband bought the Baremman estate at Gare Loch a few months ago.

Fairlawn, Bearsden, Dumbartonshire - Discusses the arrangements being made about her father [Baldwin Spencer's] papers and collections: photographs sent to Mr [L. C. G.] Clarke at Cambridge and the papers and letters with them to [G. J.?] Heath c/o Macmillan's; is not sure Sir James meant for her to keep her father's letters; [Henry] Balfour is giving them a chapter, and has picked out some things for the Pitt Rivers Museum, and the rest are going to Melbourne; L. Dudley Buxton has 'seldom or never examined specimens of so great an importance in my life'; she is pleased, and is pleased for Miss Hamilton, who went to such effort to get the collection back home; hopes Sir James will give some pages for the book [of selected letters]; Miss Hamilton has sailed to Australia but will return in June; her elder son [Alastair] has had measles; is going to France for the holidays, has been down to Gare Loch.

Department of Human Anatomy, University Museum, Oxford - Asks Frazer to send him the proof of his contribution to the Press ['Spencer's Scientific Correspondence with Sir J.G. Frazer and Others'?] when he has it; is appreciative of his tribute to Spencer at a meeting the previous Thursday.

Writes in relation to Sidgwick's review of his last book in Mind that month. Clarifies the audience at whom it is aimed, and declares that he would have no hesitation in recommending the book to candidates reading for the two examinations with which he has 'most acquaintance', i.e., 'Lit. Hum. and Mod. Hist. at Oxford.' Laments the fact that the subject of Political Science is not recognised in Scotland. Explains that the book grew out of a popular lecture, but that it is based on many years' study of the American and French Declarations of Rights. Claims that '[i]n treating the idea of "natural rights" as "an element of current thought"' he believed that it was as important to deal with popular writers, such as Henry George, as with 'an exposition of Les Naturalis like Father Rickaby or of the doctrine of Naturrecht like Prof Lorimer [or] of his own special views like [W.] Spencer.' In relation to the latter refers to his criticism of his fundamental formula of justice in the book, and claims that he has written much about him in a book called Principles of State-Interferences. With reference to two examples of Ritchie's 'inaccuracy' in his historical statements given by Sidgwick, he does not acknowledge any error, but does concede that the statements 'might certainly be improved and made fuller and less ambiguous.' Refers to the passage 'from [Filmer]', and to the theory of natural rights, which he traces to the Protestant revolt against authority. Admits that it can be traced further back, to medieval writers 'on the ecclesiastical side' who asserted the sovereignty of the people and the right of resistance to tyrants 'when the Church (or the Pope) declared them such.' Claims that Protestantism is 'the logical parent of the French Revolution', but emphasises that he does not assert this claim because Hegel said so. Refers to Locke and Rousseau, and their theories on the sovereignty of the people. Claims not to have ignored the differences between the two, and that he referred to the matter more fully in 'Darwin and Hegel etc. [Essays on 'Social Contract' and 'Sovereignty']', in Principles of State-Interference, and in the translation of [Bluntschli's] Theory of the State. Assures Sidgwick that he does not ask for a reply to his letter, but asks that he or any of his pupils or his friends who have read his book could send him notes on passages that contain inaccuracies or are in need of revision.

Fairlawn, Bearsden, Dumbartonshire - Has just moved in to her house and is very busy; asked if [R. R. ]Marett could come but he has to return to Oxford quickly; will be meeting with Jean Hamilton and will sort out letters and identify photos if Sir James still wishes to move ahead with the book [of Baldwin Spencer's writings] he had proposed when she saw them.

Accompanied by the envelope.

Woodside, Cove, Dumbartonshire - Would like to bring [Jean] Hamilton; describes what Miss Hamilton told her of the voyage bringing her father [Baldwin Spencer]'s body back to the mainland; Miss Hamilton looks very much older since January, and Dorothy's relatives are impressed by how well she managed everything; Dorothy is taking her on holiday with her to France.

Accompanied by the envelope.

Woodside, Cove, Dumbartonshire - Confirms arrangements to meet; [Jean] Hamilton has arrived in England and is also pleased at Sir James' idea of a book created from the notes and letters of her father [Baldwin Spencer]; Miss Hamilton confirms that [Baldwin] Spencer made no directions about his work.

Accompanied by the envelope.