Title

Walt Whitman's America : a cultural biography

Description

Exploring the full range of writings by and about Whitman - not just his most famous work but also his earliest poems and stories, his conversations, letters, journals, newspaper writings, and daybooks - Reynolds gives us a full, rounded picture of the man, of his creative blending of disparate ideas and images, and his contradictory stances on race, class, and gender. Whitman's uniqueness is shown to spring primarily from his closeness to and absorption of his contemporary culture. We see how the social convulsions of Jacksonian America were mirrored in the tribulations of the poet's family, and how Whitman's private anguish, which can be felt in his early poems, was swept up in his growing alarm for a nation riven by sectional controversies, political corruption, and class division. Into the vacuum created by the social and political crises rushed Whitman's gargantuan poetic "I," gathering images from every facet of American life in a hopeful gesture of unity: the cocky defiance of the Bowery b'hoys, the rhythms and inflections of actors and orators, the bloodcurdling sensationalism of penny papers, the incandescent images of luminist painters, the zany visions of popular mystics. We see Whitman in a society rampant with illicit sexual activity, which it refused to acknowledge. We see him aligning his passion for young men with the psychological and behavioral customs of a century in which same-sex love was actually common.

Identifier

531601

394580230

Creator

Reynolds, David S

Format

1st ed.

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1995

Program air date: April 28, 1996

Publisher

Knopf

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations

Notes on front end papers: May 31, 1819 b., Mar 26, 1892 d. Spent 28 yrs in Brooklyn, Long Island, Camden, Manhattan. 1836 Jesse, Mary-15, Hannah-13, Andrew-9, George-6, Jeff-3, Eddy-9 mos. 1837-depression Melville, Emerson, Thoreau. My Captain, My Captain. Grounded in Quakerism. Was he a womanizer, was he a homosexual. Relationship between Emerson and Whitman. Sister-Mary, brother-Jesse. Slavery-a big issue for Whitman. Was Whitman ever an orator-what about Henry Ward Beecher. What were the antebellum years. South hold--The troubles-gay experience with boys never appeared in Whitman biography p. 71-72. Leaves of Grass-1st editions 1855/1856. Know Nothing--1845-1855-3 million immigrants. Irish were pro-slavery-potato famine. Notes on front flysheet: How much did he write in his life. Leaves of Grass 1855/1860/1871-1872/1876/1881-82/1888/1891. Worked for the gov. Lincoln lectures. Wanted to be a popular speaker. Notes on half-title: Railroad-1829, rubber overshoes 1830, strat railway 1831, steam press for newspapers 1835, ice box 1839, daguerreotype 1839. Underlinings/Notes: Underlinings: Whitman's influence on literature, Whitman's background, family, Long Island, slavery," "education reform, teachers, politics, working class, Quaker influence, sex, hospitals. Notes: "Why?" "What's repellent?" "His secret," "terrible pain," "depression," "1835 teaching," "teaching $160 a year," "story," "left home 1837," "his early position," "1839 weekly paper," "he printed sensational news," "reform pamphlets," "lazy, uncouth," "progressive education," "40/41 WHH President," "never appeared in Whitman biography, 1841 tar," "I documented Southhold," "Whitman relative," "same sex passion of 19th century," "the demons," "purging of demons," "1854 party system collapse," "presidential incompetency," "1850s graft," "America needed a poet," "carpenter," "Brooklyn Eagle," "Leaves," "Polk," "moved to Rep. party," "He wrote about parties," "read aloud poems," "Hale," "Clay," "Henry Ward Beecher," "Whitman's lecturing plans," "lecture on Lincoln's death," "Emerson sexual images," "sexual rebel," "his sex life," "a lie six children," "masturbation," "sexual openness," "free love," "Lincoln," "1863 DC," "penny papers, freak shows," "toured hospitals," "politicians," "the masses," "homosexual desires," "same sex," "1863-1873 worked for gov," "corruption," "1857 Lincoln & Whitman," "Mary Davis 1885," "8 yrs. Mickle St.," "Horse," "strokes 1888," "typical flip-flop," "Lincoln lecture," "New York," "Horace Logo Traubel," "took notes every day," "socialism," "touched the public," "not popular," "definitive edition."

Subject

"Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892--Knowledge--America."

"Poets, American--19th century--Biography."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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