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In his poetry Walt Whitman set out to encompass all of America and in so doing heal its deepening divisions. This magisterial biography demonstrates the epic scale of his achievement, as well as the dreams and anxieties that impelled it, for it places the poet securely within the political and cultural context of his age.
Combing through the full range of Whitman's writing, David Reynolds shows how Whitman gathered inspiration from every stratum of nineteenth-century American life: the convulsions of slavery and depression; the raffish dandyism of the Bowery "b'hoys"; the exuberant rhetoric of actors, orators, and divines. We see how Whitman reconciled his own sexuality with contemporary social mores and how his energetic courtship of the public presaged the vogues of advertising and celebrity. Brilliantly researched, captivatingly told, Walt Whitman's America is a triumphant work of scholarship that breathes new life into the biographical genre.
This comprehensive, original portrait of the life and work of one of America's greatest poets--set in the social, cultural, and political context of his time--considers the full range of writings by and about Whitman, his early poems and stories, his conversations, letters, journals, newspaper writings, and daybooks. "A remarkably informative biography."--The New York Times Book Review.
| Acknowledgments | ||
| Introductory Note | ||
| Prologue | 3 | |
| 1 | "Underneath All, Nativity": Literary Genealogy, Literary Geography | 7 |
| 2 | A Brooklyn Boyhood: Sights, Surroundings, Influences | 30 |
| 3 | Dark Passages: Teaching and Early Authorship | 52 |
| 4 | Mannahatta: The Literary Marketplace and Urban Reality | 81 |
| 5 | "The United States Need Poets": The Political and Social Crisis | 111 |
| 6 | American Performances: Theater, Oratory, Music | 154 |
| 7 | "Sex Is the Root of It All": Eroticism and Gender | 194 |
| 8 | Earth, Body, Soul: Science and Religion | 235 |
| 9 | Toward a Popular Aesthetic: The Visual Arts | 279 |
| 10 | "I Contain Multitudes": The First Edition of Leaves of Grass | 306 |
| 11 | "The Murderous Delays": In Search of an Audience | 339 |
| 12 | Brotherly Love, National War: Into the 1860s | 383 |
| 13 | "My Book and the War Are One": The Washington Years | 413 |
| 14 | Reconstructing a Nation, Reconstructing a Poet: Postbellum Institutions | 448 |
| 15 | The Burden of Atlas: The New America | 495 |
| 16 | The Pope of Mickle Street: The Final Years | 546 |
| Notes | 591 | |
| Index | 639 |
Overview
In his poetry Walt Whitman set out to encompass all of America and in so doing heal its deepening divisions. This magisterial biography demonstrates the epic scale of his achievement, as well as the dreams and anxieties that impelled it, for it places the poet securely within the political and cultural context of his age.
Combing through the full range of Whitman's writing, David Reynolds shows how Whitman gathered inspiration from every stratum of nineteenth-century American ...