The Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil War / Edition 1

The Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil War / Edition 1

by Roy Morris
ISBN-10:
019514709X
ISBN-13:
9780195147094
Pub. Date:
12/20/2001
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
019514709X
ISBN-13:
9780195147094
Pub. Date:
12/20/2001
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
The Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil War / Edition 1

The Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil War / Edition 1

by Roy Morris
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Overview

For nearly three years, Walt Whitman immersed himself in the devastation of the Civil War, tending to thousands of wounded soldiers and recording his experiences with an immediacy and compassion unequaled in wartime literature anywhere in the world.
In The Better Angel, acclaimed biographer Roy Morris, Jr. gives us the fullest account of Whitman's profoundly transformative Civil War years and an historically invaluable examination of the Union's treatment of its sick and wounded. Whitman was mired in depression as the war began, subsisting on journalistic hackwork, his "great career" as a poet apparently stalled. But when news came that his brother George had been wounded at Fredericksburg, Whitman rushed south to find him. Deeply affected by his first view of the war's casualties, he began visiting the camp's wounded and found his calling for the duration of the war. Three years later, he emerged as the war's "most unlikely hero," a living symbol of American democratic ideals of sharing and brotherhood.
Brilliantly researched and beautifully written, The Better Angel explores a side of Whitman not fully examined before, one that greatly enriches our understanding of his later poetry. Moreover, it gives us a vivid and unforgettable portrait of the "other army"—the legions of sick and wounded soldiers who are usually left in the shadowy background of Civil War history—seen here through the unflinching eyes of America's greatest poet.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780195147094
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 12/20/2001
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 8.11(w) x 5.10(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

Roy Morris, Jr. is a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is the author of Sheridan: The Life and Wars of General Phil Sheridan and Ambrose Bierce: Alone in Bad Company.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments,ix
INTRODUCTION The Medicine of Daily Affection3
CHAPTER ONE New York Stagnation9
CHAPTER TWO A Sight in Camp48
CHAPTER THREE The Great Army of the Sick75
CHAPTER FOUR The Real Precious & Royal Ones of This Land124
CHAPTER FIVE The Melancholy Tide161
CHAPTER SIX Retrievements Out of the Night201
EPILOGUE Lose Not My Sons238
Notes,245
Bibliography,259
Index,263

What People are Saying About This

Simon Winchester

This deftly written, almost unbearably moving book serves to remind us powerfully of the horrors faced by the wounded on the Civil War battlefields, of the genius and compassion of Walt Whitman in dealing with them, and of the remarkable skill of one of America's most accomplished biographers in researching and telling so poignant a story.
— Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and The Madman

Robert H. Abzug

The Better Angel illuminates Walt Whitman's Civil War years with frankness and compassion. His insights and compelling narratives afford us new and humanly rich understandings of the poet and his vision of America.
— Robert H. Abzug, author of Cosmos Crumbling: American Reform and the Religious Imagination and Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps

Sean Wilentz

Elegant and moving…Essential reading for everyone who cares about American culture.

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