WALT WHITMAN THE CENTENNIAL ESSAYS THE CENTENNIAL ESSAYS WALT WHITMAN Edited by Ed Folsom Drawings by Guido Villa UNIVERSITY OF IOWA PRESS IOWA CITY University oflowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright © 1994 by the University oflowa Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed on acid-free paper 01 00 99 98 97 96 95 94 c 5 4 3 2 01 00 99 98 97 96 95 94 p 5 4 3 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Walt Whitman: the Centennial essays I edited by Ed Folsom; drawings by Guido Villa. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87745-459-0 (cloth), ISBN 0-87745-462-0 (paper) r. Whitman, Walt, r8I9-I892-Criticism and interpretation. I. Folsom, Ed, I947- PS3238.w369 I994 8n'.3-dc20 CIP TO GAY WILSON ALLEN Dean ofWhitman Scholars Contents Acknowledgments Xl Abbreviations Xlll Introduction: "Generations Hence" XV ED FOLSOM THE LIFE: THE BIOGRAPHICAL WHITMAN Whitman Biography in 1992 3 GAY WILSON ALLEN The Binns Biography 10 JEROME LOVING Whitman: Bibliography as Biography 19 JOEL MYERSON Whitman Unperturbed: The Civil War and After 30 VIVIAN R. POLLAK THE TEXTS: ORIGINS AND STYLE The European Roots of Leaves ofGrass 51 ROGER ASSELINEAU Vlll CONTENTS "Tallying, Vocalizing All": Discourse Markers in Leaves of Grass 61 C. CARROLL HOLLIS Whitman's Physical Eloquence 68 M. JIMMIE KILLINGSWORTH Reconstructing Language in Democratic Vistas 79 JAMES PERRIN WARREN The Obfuscations of Rhetoric: Whitman and the Visionary Experience 88 ARTHUR GOLDEN THE CULTURE: POLITICS AND SEXUALITY The Body Politic in Democratic Vistas !05 HAROLD ASPIZ The Politics of Labor and the Poet's Work: A Reading of ''A Song for Occupations" 120 ALAN TRACHTENBERG Whitman and the Dreams of Labor 133 M. WYNN THOMAS Whitman and the Homosexual Republic 153 BETSY ERKKILA Whitman and the Politics of Identity 172 ROBERT K. MARTIN THE INFLUENCE: WHITMAN AMONG OTHERS Whitman's Multitudinous Poetic Progeny: Particular and Puzzling Instances JAMES E. MILLER, JR. The Whitman Legacy and the Harlem Renaissance 201 GEORGE B. HUTCHINSON Whitman, Dos Passos, and "Our Storybook Democracy" 217 KENNETH M. PRICE CONTENTS IX "Teach Me Your Rhythm": The Poetics of German Lyrical Responses to Whitman 226 WALTER GRUNZWEIG Whitman Criticism in the Light of Indian Poetics V. K. CHARI Notes on Contributors Index of Names 255 Index ofWhitman Works 260 Acknowledgments "WALT WHITMAN: The Centennial Conference," held March 26-29, 1992, in Iowa City, Iowa, was made possible by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Iowa Humanities Board. A generous gift from Esco Obermann allowed schol­ ars and translators from outside the United States to gather in Iowa City for a seminar at the University of Iowa Center for Advanced Studies immediately following the conference. Jay Semel, director of the Center for Advanced Studies, and Lorna Olson, administrative assistant, provided extraordinary support. For help too vast and various to specify, I thank Victoria Brehm, my ad­ ministrative assistant, who worked her organizational magic to make it all happen. Vicki negotiated with travel agents, reservation clerks, internationally famous poets and scholars, chefs, talented musicians, television crews, design­ ers, and artists and managed not only to keep her own sanity but to preserve mine. Nina Metzner, assistant editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, provided invaluable assistance, and my research assistant, Dan Lewis, devel­ oped Whitman software and was instrumental in the editing of this volume of essays. Pat and Ben uncomplainingly did without the usual family spring-training trip so that this remarkable gathering of talent could occur, and I thank them, as always, for their love and support. Abbreviations AP Horace Traubel, ed., An American Primer (1904; rpt., Stevens Point, Wis.: Holy Cow! Press, 1987). BB Arthur Golden, ed., Walt Whitman's Blue Book (New York: New York Public Library, 1968), 2 vols. CORR Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., Walt Whitman: The Correspondence (New York: New York University Press, I961-1977), 6 vols. DN William White, ed., Daybooks and Notebooks (New York: New York University Press, 1978), 3 vols. DT F. DeWolfe Miller, ed., Drum-Taps (I86S) and Sequel to Drum-Taps (I86s-66): A Facsimile Reproduction (Gainesville, Fla.: Scholars' Fac­ similes and Reprints, 1959). EPF Thomas L. Brasher, ed., Early Poetry and Fiction (New York: New York University Press, 1963). HT Horace Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden. Vols. r-3 (1905-1914; rpt., New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1961). Vol. 4 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1953). Vols. 5-7 (Carbondale: South­ ern Illinois Press, 1964, 1982, 1992). LG Sculley Bradley and Harold W Blodgett, eds., Leaves of Grass: Com­ prehensive Reader's Edition (New York: New York University Press, 1965). LG55 Malcolm Cowley, ed., Leaves of Grass: The First (I8Ss) Edition (New York: Viking, 1959). xiv ABBREVIATIONS LG6o Roy Harvey Pearce, ed., Leaves of Grass, r86o Facsimile Text (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1961). MLG Fredson Bowers, ed., Whitman's Manuscripts, Leaves of Grass (r86o): A Parallel Text (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955). NF Richard Maurice Bucke, ed., Notes and Fragments (Ontario, Canada: A. Talbot, 1899). NUP Edward F. Grier, ed., Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts (New York: New York University Press, 1984), 6 vols. PW Floyd Stovall, ed., Prose Works, r892 (New York: New York University Press, 1963-1964), 2 vols. SL Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., Selected Letters ofWalt Whitman (Iowa City: University oflowa Press, 1990). TV Sculley Bradley, Harold W Blodgett, Arthur Golden, William White, eds., Leaves of Grass: A Textual Variorum of the Printed Poems (New York: New York University Press, 1980), 3 vols. UPP Emory Holloway, ed., The Uncollected Poetry and Prose of Walt Whit­ man (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page, 1921), 2 vols. ED FOLSOM Introduction "Generations Hence" Others will see the islands large and small; Fifty years hence, others wtll see them as they cross, the sun halfan hour high, A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them, Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in ofthe flood-tide, the falling-back to the sea ofthe ebb-tide. I am with you, you men and women ofa generation, or ever so many generations hence. ("Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," LG, 160) N 19 8 7, five years before the hundredth anniversary of Walt Whitman's I death and less than a year before his own death, Charles Feinberg, the great collector of Whitman materials, called me and said it was time to start thinking about the Whitman Centennial. He had already been thinking about it quite a bit, and at the time of that phone call he was devastated about a letter he had received from a prominent librarian at the Library of Congress, where Charlie had donated his monumental collection of Whitman books, manuscripts, and materials. The librarian, in response to Charlie's request that the Library of Congress organize an appropriate Centennial exhibition and program, had stated flatly that there would be no special recognition for Whitman in 1992 because "1992 would be Columbus's year." The nation's li­ brary, it seems, had decided on a Columbus-only celebration, and the officials wanted nothing to dilute what seemed at that time destined to be a year of joy dedicated to the commemoration of the Genoese mariner's great voyage of discovery. The Whitman Centennial, said the librarian, would not be a no­ table event; perhaps, if they got around to it, they would display the manu­ scripts of Whitman's "Columbus" poems in some corner of the opulent Columbus exhibit. What a difference five years makes! Nineteen ninety-two turned out to be something of a bust for Columbus admirers, who endured a year of seeing their hero denigrated as a representative of imperialistic European hegemony in the New World. There were Columbus conferences, to be sure, but they ended up interrogating his voyages of discovery more than celebrating them. XVI INTRODUCTION While the Library of Congress stuck to its guns and refused to acknowledge the Whitman Centennial in any meaningful way, other groups and organiza­ tions around the country and around the world turned their attention to the good g(r)ay democratic poet. In 1992, Whitman was honored in major pro­ grams and conferences from Philadelphia to Fresno, from Miami to Los Angeles-and in Italy and Spain and Germany and England and Portugal and Argentina. New York City put on a series of exhibitions and symposia lasting two months. The premiere performance of a new symphony based on Leaves ofGrass took place in Tokyo; a feature film on Whitman appeared in Canada; and major journals in France, South America, and the United States devoted entire issues to Whitman. But the major international gathering of Whitman scholars took place in Iowa City, Iowa. "Walt Whitman: The Centennial Conference" opened on March 26, 1992, one hundred years to the day after Whitman's death. Over 150 Whitman scholars attended and heard papers by twenty of the world's most eminent critics of Whitman. There were sessions on Whitman and Biography, Whitman and Language, Whitman and Sexuality, Whitman and Politics, Whitman's Influence on American Poetry, and Whitman's Inter­ national Influence. After each session, participants divided into seminars and carried on discussions with the presenters. These lively exchanges, sometimes lasting a couple of hours, often extended to dinner conversations and collo­ quies long into the night. Following the main conference events, Whitman translators and scholars from ten different countries held a two-day seminar at the University of Iowa Center for Advanced Studies; they discussed the prob­ lematics of translating Whitman's poetry and investigated his absorption into the literary traditions of other cultures.