This is what I get:

$ perldoc LWP
No documentation found for "LWP".
[download]

I don't get it. The latest addition of perl doesn't come with the necessary ingredients to use cpan?

...either that, or you've got yourself a broken perl install.

Do you have LWP installed elsewhere on your system, if so, try adding the path to it [LWP] to your PERL5LIB and running the install again.

A user level that continues to overstate my experience :-))

$ sudo find / -name LWP
Password:
/Library/Perl/5.8.6/darwin-thread-multi-2level/auto/LWP
/Library/Perl/5.8.6/LWP
/System/Library/Perl/5.8.6/CPAN/LWP
/Users/me/.cpan/build/libwww-perl-5.833-594ynR/blib/arch/auto/LWP
/Users/me/.cpan/build/libwww-perl-5.833-594ynR/blib/lib/auto/LWP
/Users/me/.cpan/build/libwww-perl-5.833-594ynR/blib/lib/LWP
/Users/me/.cpan/build/libwww-perl-5.833-594ynR/lib/LWP
/Users/me/.cpan/build/libwww-perl-5.833-KTAvI8/blib/arch/auto/LWP
/Users/me/.cpan/build/libwww-perl-5.833-KTAvI8/blib/lib/auto/LWP
/Users/me/.cpan/build/libwww-perl-5.833-KTAvI8/blib/lib/LWP
/Users/me/.cpan/build/libwww-perl-5.833-KTAvI8/lib/LWP
/Users/me/my_tar_extractions/libwww-perl-5.833/blib/arch/auto/LWP
/Users/me/my_tar_extractions/libwww-perl-5.833/blib/lib/auto/LWP
/Users/me/my_tar_extractions/libwww-perl-5.833/blib/lib/LWP
/Users/me/my_tar_extractions/libwww-perl-5.833/lib/LWP
/Users/me/my_tar_extractions/perl-5.10.1/lib/CPAN/LWP
/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.10.1/CPAN/LWP

$ sudo find / -name PERL5LIB
$
[download]

The first module I tried to install with cpan while using my system's 5.8.6 perl was LWP::Simple. However, cpan couldn't get past the "make test" step during installation. So someone told me to download and install libww-perl-5.833 by hand, and just skip the 'make test' step and do "make" followed by "make install". After I did that, I was able to use LWP::Simple in my perl programs.

Then I tried to install my second module, FileUtils::More, using cpan, and once again cpan couldn't install the module. In response, I decided to upgrade to perl 5.10.1. The location of my new perl 5.10.1 install is shown in my initial post. Anyway, that's why some of the results in my find searches are in a Perl/5.8.6/ directory and some are in a perl5/perl5.10.1/ directory

I don't see anything set for an environment variable named PERL5LIB:

$ echo $PERL5LIB

$
[download]

Here is some more information:

$ perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 10 subversion 1) configuration
+:
   
  Platform:
    osname=darwin, osvers=8.11.1, archname=darwin-2level
    uname='darwin cws-computer.local 8.11.1 darwin kernel version 8.11
+.1: wed oct 10 18:23:28 pdt 2007; root:xnu-792.25.20~1release_i386 i3
+86 i386 '
    config_args='-de'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    useithreads=undef, usemultiplicity=undef
    useperlio=define, d_sfio=undef, uselargefiles=define, usesocks=und
+ef
    use64bitint=undef, use64bitall=undef, uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', ccflags ='-fno-common -DPERL_DARWIN -no-cpp-precomp -fno-
+strict-aliasing -pipe -I/usr/local/include',
    optimize='-O3',
    cppflags='-no-cpp-precomp -fno-common -DPERL_DARWIN -no-cpp-precom
+p -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -I/usr/local/include'
    ccversion='', gccversion='4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5370)'
+, gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=1
+6
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t',
+ lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=8, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='env MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.3 cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local
+/lib'
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /usr/lib
    libs=-ldbm -ldl -lm -lc
    perllibs=-ldl -lm -lc
    libc=/usr/lib/libc.dylib, so=dylib, useshrplib=false, libperl=libp
+erl.a
    gnulibc_version=''
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=bundle, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
    cccdlflags=' ', lddlflags=' -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup -L/u
+sr/local/lib'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl): 
  Compile-time options: PERL_DONT_CREATE_GVSV PERL_MALLOC_WRAP
                        USE_LARGE_FILES USE_PERLIO
  Built under darwin
  Compiled at Nov  5 2009 01:43:02
  @INC:
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.10.1/darwin-2level
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.10.1
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.1/darwin-2level
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.10.1
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.6
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl
    .
[download]

Can you explain this statement:

Since neither /Library/Perl/5.8.6 or /System/Library/Perl/5.8.6 are standard locations, I would infer that PERL5LIB isn't being used, as it ought, to do its job - what you need, I'm guessing, is something like:

PERL5LIB=$PERL5LIB:/Library/Perl/5.8.6:/System/Library/Perl/5.8.6
export PERL5LIB
[download]

Why would I want anything to point to my system's install of perl 5.8.6 when I want to use my own install of perl 5.10.1?

Thanks.

...curl works, wget works

Hmmm, one/both of the above is/are self-evidently not true - look at the error returned from the OS during the rename:

Error while trying to rename '/Users/me/.cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc
+.txt.gz.tmp604' to '/Users/me/.cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz':
+ No such file or directory
[download]

That shouts loudly (to me anyway) that the download of /Users/me/.cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz.tmp604 failed ... quietly.
A user level that continues to overstate my experience :-))

I expect LWP to fail as well