Memoranda During the War

by Walt Whitman

Overview

During the Civil War, from 1862-1865, Walt Whitman spent much of his time with wounded soldiers, both in the field and in the hospitals. The 40 notebooks he filled became the basis for the extraordinary diary of a medic in the Civil War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557091321
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	02/01/1990
Series:	Applewood Books
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	96
Sales rank:	206,728
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Peter Coviello is Associate Professor of English at Bowdoin College and currently chair of the Program in Gay and Lesbian Studies. He is the author of Intimacy in America: Dreams of Affiliation in Antebellum Literature.

Editorial Reviews

In 1862, Whitman traveled from Brooklyn, NY, to Virginia to look for his battle-wounded brother George. The trip offered him a front-row seat to the horrors of the Civil War. He spoke to many soldiers and others involved and put together this volume, which he published privately in 1876 in an edition of 100 copies. Some of the material later was worked into newspaper articles and other books, but this volume, reedited by scholar Peter Coviello, includes it all. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"As Peter Coviello points out in his excellent introduction to this volume, Whitman came late to the scene of the Civil War, but, when he did so, he produced one of the few truly indispensable books about it. Memoranda During the War is written in prose that often compares well for beauty and intensity with the best poems in Leaves of Grass. It is easy to see why the book has served as a model for writers on the desolations of war from Stephen Crane to Hemingway to our own day." —Michael Moon, Johns Hopkins University

From the Publisher