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Hardcover Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself Book

ISBN: 0520214277

ISBN13: 9780520214279

Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself

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Book Overview

Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself is the first full-length critical biography of Walt Whitman in more than forty years. Jerome Loving makes use of recently unearthed archival evidence and newspaper writings to present the most accurate, complete, and complex portrait of the poet to date. This authoritative biography affords fresh, often revelatory insights into many aspects of the poet's life, including his attitudes toward the emerging urban life of America, his relationships with his family members, his developing notions of male-male love, his attitudes toward the vexed issue of race, and his insistence on the union of American states. Virtually every chapter presents material that was previously unknown or unavailable, and Whitman emerges as never before, in all his complexity as a corporal, cerebral, and spiritual being. Loving gives us a new Poet of Democracy, one for the twenty-first century.Loving brings to life the elusive early Whitman, detailing his unhappy teaching career, typesetting jobs, quarrels with editors, and relationships with family and friends. He takes us through the Civil War-with Whitman's moving descriptions of the wounded and dying he nursed, the battlegrounds and camps he visited-demonstrating why the war became one of the defining events of Whitman's life and poetry. Loving's account of Whitman's relationship with Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most complete and fascinating available. He also draws insights from new material about Whitman's life as a civil servant, his Lincoln lectures, and his abiding campaign to gain acceptance for what was regarded by many as a "dirty book." He examines each edition of Leaves of Grass in connection with the life and times that produced it, demonstrating how Whitman's poetry serves as a priceless historical document-marking such events as Grant's death, the completion of the Washington monument, Custer's defeat, and the Johnstown flood-at the same time that it reshapes the canon of American literature.The most important gap in the Whitman record is his journalism, which has never been completely collected and edited. Previous biographers have depended on a very incomplete and inaccurate collection. Loving has found long-forgotten runs of the newspapers Whitman worked on and has gathered the largest collection of his journalism to date. He uses these pieces to significantly enhance our understanding of where Whitman stood in the political and ideological spectra of his era.Loving tracks down the sources of anecdotes about Whitman, how they got passed from one biographer to another, were embellished and re-contextualized. The result is a biography in which nothing is claimed without a basis in the factual record. Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself will be an invaluable tool for generations to come, an essential resource in understanding Leaves of Grass and its poet-who defied literary decorum, withstood condemnation, and stubbornly pursued his own way. This description may be from another edition of this product.

Customer Reviews

6 customer ratings | 4 reviews

Rated 4 stars
From a Former Student

I took a Whitman seminar from Dr. Loving, and this was our textbook. It is very dy, and very full of detail. I love Whitman's work, and reading this biography really helped me understand more about it.

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Rated 5 stars
The good gray poet of Camden

The poet died in 1892. In life he became notorious and a positive influence on the reformers of the day. The author states he supplied the model for the count in Bram Stoker's DRACULA. The first edition of LEAVES OF GRASS was 1855, the last 1881. Whitman was not as solitary as previously assumed. For the poet the Civil War became a marriage ceremony of sorts. At forty three Whitman was too old for the rigors of combat...

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Rated 5 stars
Most comprehensive, and least theory-ridden Whitman Bio.

In this latest biography of quite possibly the most important American poet, Jerome Loving takes on a Herculean labor: to present the facts about a man who endeavored to create himself as an icon, and who has been taken up by a dozen causes and ideologies as one of their own (some have regarded Whitman as a religious figure on par with Christ, a homosexual liberator, or a proto-communist). The result of a great deal of combining...

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Rated 4 stars
"I felt as if I was by the poets side each and every moment.

After reading Loving's book on Whitman it only enhanced my spirit to read and analyze more of this Poet's life and poetry. I decieded to write about Whitman in my class at college and used Loving's book as a research means together with other books form the university library. I feel as if I know more about good "Old Walt" then I do my own family. This was truly a good read. Enjoy!!!

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