(Brother of Mary, Writer)

Born in New Jersey, Logan was the younger brother of Mary Whitall Smith. The siblings were close throughout their lives, and when Logan enrolled at Harvard in 1884, Mary began attending the Harvard Annex. During that period, they lived together and attended numerous lectures on philosophy, literature, and art. As with Mary, it was during Logan's Harvard years that the mystique of literary and artistic Italy began to exert a pull on him, and much like Mary and Bernard, he drew inspiration from the writings of Walter Pater. After studying at Balliol College at Oxford, Logan settled in England, though he frequently spent time with Bernard and Mary in Italy. Whereas Bernard's early interest in literature shifted to other fields, Logan became an essayist, literary critic, and master of the epigram. His autobiography, Unforgotten Years (1939) is an important source of information about Mary and Bernard.

The image of Logan is a detail of a photograph of the Idiot Club (fig. MS.III.2).