Walt(er) Whitman (1819-1892)

A story of Whitman's later years, told by a publisher, reveals that the author did not lose his self-esteem during his last years. Whitman had entered with his ruffled beard and sombrero the lobby of the Hotel Albert in New York and every man in it raised his newspaper up top hide his face from the author. He turned and went out. The publisher, for some reason, followed him and asked who he was. The man said: "I am Walt Whitman. If you'll lend me a dollar, you will be helping immortality to stumble on." (from The March of Literature by Ford Madox Ford, 1938) Jorge Luis Borges has seen Whitman as the hero of his epic, a character he yearned to be: "Thus, on one page of the work, Whitman is born on Long Island; on others, in the South. Thus, in one of the mostly authentic sections of "Song of Myself," he relates a heroic episode of the Mexican War and says he heard the story told in Texas, a place he never went." (from The Total Library, 1999)

In 1881 appeared a newly augmented edition of Leaves of Grass. The following year Whitman published SPECIMEN DAYS AND COLLECT, and in 1888 appeared a collection of his newspaper pieces, NOVEMBER BOUGHS. His final volume was the 'Deathbed' edition of Leaves of Grass, which he prepared in 1891-92. It concludes with the prose piece 'A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads', in which he attempts to explain his life and work. Whitman died on March 26, 1892, in Camden.

Whitman's wavelike verse and his fresh use of language helped to liberate American poetry. He wanted to be a national bard, his prophetic note echo, among other books, the Bible, but his erotic candor separated him from conventionally romantic poets. He also boasted that he is 'non-literary and non-decorous' - which perhaps was not really true. When he urged the Muse to forget the matter of Troy and develop new themes, he knew what the matter of Troy was.

LEAVES OF GRASS: First presented as a group of 12 poems, and followed by five revised and three reissued editions during the author's lifetime. Whitman maintained that a poet's style should be simple and natural, without orthodox meter or rhyme. The poems were written to be spoken, but they have great variety in rhythm and tonal volume. The central theme arouses from Whitman's pantheistic view of life, from symbolic identification of regeneration in nature. - Whitman's use of free verse had a deep influence on poetry. He was a great inspiring example for the beat-generation (Ginsberg, Kerouac etc.) .In the introduction of the work Whitman wrote: "The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters is simplicity. Nothing is better than simplicity... nothing can make up for excess or for the lack of definiteness. To carry on the heave of impulse and pierce intellectual depths and give all subjects their articulations are powers neither common nor very uncommon. But the speak in literature with the perfect rectitude and insouciance of the movements of animals and the unimpeachableness of the sentiment of threes in the woods and grass by the roadside in the flawless triumph of art."For further reading: Reader's Guide by G.W. Allen (1970); Critical Essays on Walt Whitman, ed. by J. Woodress (1983); Language and Style by C.C.Hollis (1983); Walt Whitman by James E. Miller Jr., Helen Regenstein (1990); From Noon to Starry Night: A Life of Walt Whitman by Philip Callow (1992); Masculine Landscapes by Byrne R.S. Fone (1992); The Growth of Leaves of Grass by M. Jimmie Killingsworth (1993); Walt Whitman; The Centennial Essays, ed. by Ed Folsom (1994); The Cambridge Companion to Walt Whitman, ed. by Ezra Greenspan (1995); Walt Whitman by Catherine Reef (1995); Walt Whitman & the World, ed. by Gay Wilson Allen, Ed Folsom (1995); Walt Whitman: A Gay Life by Gary Schmidgall (1997); Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. by J.R. Lemaster, Donald D. Kummings (1998); Walt Whitman: A Comprehensive Research and Study Guide, ed. by Harold Bloom (1999); A Historical Guide to Walt Whitman, ed. by David S. Reynolds (1999); Walt Whitman, ed. by Jim Perlman (1999); Walt Whitman by Jerome Loving (1999) - other studies among others by J. Kaplan (1980); H. Aspiz (1980); W.H. Eitner (1981); P. Zweig (1984); D. Cavitch (1985); M.W. Thomas (1987) - Museums: Walt Whitman's birthplace, 246 Old Whitman Road, Huntington Station, Suffolk - Note: Edgar Lee Masters, who wrote Spoon River Anthology, published a biography of Walt Whitmanin in 1937.

Selected works:

FRANKLIN EVANS, 1842

LEAVES OF GRASS, 1855 (first edition) - Ruohoa, suom. Arvo Turtiainen

SEQUEL TO DRUM.TAPS, 1865

DEMOCRATIC VISTAS, 1871

MEMORANDA DURING THE WAR, 1875

SPECIMEN DAYS & COLLECT, 1882-83

NOVEMBER BOUGHS, 1888

COMPLETE WRITINGS, 10 vol., 1902

CORRESPONDENCE, 1961-69 (4 vols., ed. by E.H. Miller)

PROSE WORKS, 1963-64 (2 vols., ed. by F. Stoval)

DAYBOOKS AND NOTEBOOKS, 1978

WALT WHITMAN: POETRY AND PROSE, 1982 (ed. by Justin Kaplan)

CORRESPONDENCE 1886-1889, 1989