Leaves of Grass - Whitman Archive

1 Leaves of Grass of Leaves Grass The Sesqui- centennial Essays Edited and with an introduction by s us an belas co, ed f ols om, . kenneth m. pri ce University of Nebraska Press : Lincoln and London Whitman at Night: The Sleepers' in 1855 . was originally published in an abbreviated form in the Yale Review 94, no. 2 (2006). 2007 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Leaves of Grass : the sesquicentennial essays /.

2 Edited and with an introduction by Susan Belasco, Ed Folsom, and Kenneth M. Price. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ). and index. isbn-13: 978-0-8032-6000-9 (pbk.: alk. paper). isbn-10: 0-8032-6000-8 (pbk.: alk. paper). 1. Whitman , Walt, 1819 1892. Leaves of Grass . I. Belasco, Susan, 1950 II. Folsom, Ed, 1947 III. Price, Kenneth M., 1954 . 2007. 811'.3 dc22. 2006037489. Set in itc New Baskerville by Bob Reitz. Designed by A. Shahan. For James E. Miller Jr. : Whitman scholar, mentor, friend Contents List of Illustrations x Acknowledgments xi Introduction s u s an belas co , ed f o ls om , an d ken n eth m.

3 Price xiii Abbreviations xix 1. What We're Still Learning about the 1855. Leaves of Grass 150 Years Later ed f o ls o m 1. part 1 : Foregrounding the First Edition 2. Whitman , Marx, and the American 1848. bets y erkkila 35. 3. United States and States United: Whitman 's National Vision in 1855. m. w yn n tho mas 62. part 2 : Reading the First Edition 4. One goodshaped and wellhung man : Accentuated Sexuality and the Uncertain Authorship of the Frontispiece to the 1855 Edition of Leaves of Grass ted g en oways 87. 5. Whitman at Night: The Sleepers in 1855.

4 Alan trachten berg 124. 6. Complaints from the Spotted Hawk: Flights and Feathers in Whitman 's 1855 Leaves of Grass tho mas c. g an n o n 141. part 3 : Contextualizing the First Edition 7. Leaves of Grass and the Poetry Marketplace of Antebellum America s u s an belas co 179. 8. Leaves of Grass (1855) and the Cities of Whitman 's Memory w illiam pan n apacker 199. 9. The Lost Negress of Song of Myself and the Jolly Young Wenches of Civil War Washington ken n eth m. price 224. 10. Bringing help for the sick : Whitman and Prophetic Biography vivian r.

5 Po llak 244. part 4 : Aftereffects 11. The Visionary and the Visual in Whitman 's Poetics m. jimmie killin g swort h 269. 12. Walt Whitman as an Eminent Victorian law ren ce bu ell 282. 13. To reach the workmen direct : Horace Traubel and the Work of the 1855 Edition of Leaves of Grass matt co hen 299. 14. Profession of the calamus : Whitman , Eliot, Matthiessen jay grossman 321. 15. Whitman and the Cold War: The Centenary Celebration of Leaves of Grass in Eastern Europe walter g r n zw eig 343. part 5 : The Life behind the Book 16.

6 A Southerner as soon as a Northerner : Writing Walt Whitman 's Biography jerome loving 363. 17. Why I Write Cultural Biography: The Backgrounds of Walt Whitman 's America david s . reyn o ld s 378. 18. Songs of Myself; or, Confessions of a Whitman Collector jo el myers o n 402. part 6 : A Poet Responds 19. Strong is your hold : My Encounters with Whitman g alway kin n ell 417. part 7 : The Critical Response 20. The First Leaves of Grass : A Bibliography d o n ald d . ku mmin g s 429. Contributors 457. Index 463. Illustrations Reconstruction of a first edition quarto sheet 23.

7 Whitman 's working notes 25. Frontispiece to the 1855 edition 88. Lithograph of F. S. Chanfrau as Mose 90. Engraving of The Bowery Boy 91. Hollyer's 1888 etching of Whitman 95. Detail of a copy of the 1855 frontispiece (thin sheet) 99. Detail of a copy of the 1855 frontispiece (thick sheet) 99. Frontispiece to Poems of Walt Whitman 103. Illustration included in the 1898 edition of Leaves of Grass 115. Hollyer's reengraving of the 1855 frontispiece 118. Czechoslovakian stamp of Whitman 349. The Good Gray Poet commemorative stamp 349.

8 Acknowledgments We are deeply indebted to the many faculty, staff, and students at the University of Nebraska Lincoln who assisted us in a variety of ways in the preparation of this volume, which began with Leaves of Grass : The 150th Anniversary Conference, held in Lincoln, 31. March 2 April 2005. We thank our sponsors for the conference: the senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, the vice chancellor for research, the College of Arts and Sciences, the university libraries, the Hixon-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts, the School of Music, the Department of English, and the University of Nebraska Press.

9 We are grateful to the graduate students who assisted us with the conference: Owen Day, Vicki Martin, Carmel Morse, Jennifer Overkamp, Mathias Svalina, and especially Amanda Gailey and Liz Lorang. Another graduate student, Yelizaveta Renfro, served as our editorial assistant in the preparation of this volume of essays and of- fered excellent and timely advice. We also want to recognize our col- leagues at the University of Nebraska Lincoln for their ongoing sup- port and encouragement of Whitman projects: Brett Barney, Robert Bergstrom, Barbara Couture, Mary Ellen Ducey, Rick Edwards, Joan Giesecke, Richard Hoffman, Andrew Jewell, Ted Kooser, Giacomo Oliva, Prem Paul, Linda Pratt, Brian Pytlik Zillig, John Richmond, xii : Acknowledgments Katherine L.

10 Walter, and Tyler White. Gary Dunham and Ladette Randolph of the University of Nebraska Press offered strong encour- agement and many helpful suggestions. We would also like to thank our copyeditor, Joseph Brown, for his excellent work. Ed Folsom received valuable support from the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at The University of Iowa. Introduction susan belasco, ed folsom, kenneth m. price In the spring of 2005 over 150 scholars, musicians, poets, and en- thusiasts gathered at the University of Nebraska Lincoln to cele- brate the sesquicentennial of the first publication of Leaves of Grass (1855).