Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: a Literary Reference to His Life and Work
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CRITICAL COMPANION TO Walt Whitman A Literary Reference to His Life and Work CHARLES M. OLIVER Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work Copyright © 2006 by Charles M. Oliver All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Oliver, Charles M. Critical companion to Walt Whitman : a literary reference to his life and work / Charles M. Oliver. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-5768-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Whitman, Walt, 1819–1892. 2. Poets, American—19th century— Biography. I. Title. PS3231.053 2005 811′.3—dc22 2005004172 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Erika K. Arroyo Cover design by Cathy Rincon Chart by Sholto Ainslie Printed in the United States of America VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Fred Eckman of Bowling Green State University and to the dozen students in his graduate seminar on Walt Whitman in the summer of 1966. He taught us to love more than the poetry. Who among my colleagues in that class will ever forget the telephone call on August 2 from Professor Eckman’s secretary, informing us that Fred’s only son had been killed the day before in the University of Texas Tower murders. The shooter was Charles Whitman. We were told that Professor Eckman was too distraught to finish the seminar and that we would get our final exam in the mail. But he changed his mind, and we met once more for two hours of an emotional reading by Eckman of Walt Whitman’s poems. The emotions were mostly ours, and I can still hear his sonorous voice, reciting some of the greatest of all American poetry. CONTENTS Introduction and Guide to Use vii Part I: Biography 1 Part II: Works A–Z 27 Part III: Related People, Places, Publications, and Topics 249 Part IV: Appendices Chronology 365 Journalism Chronology 379 Newspapers and Magazines That Published Whitman’s Articles and Editorials 381 Whitman Addresses 383 Glossary of Whitman Terms 385 Whitman’s Last Will and Testament 389 Walt Whitman Genealogy 391 Bibliography of Primary Sources 392 Selected Bibliography of Secondary Sources 394 Index 397 INTRODUCTION AND GUIDE TO USE alt Whitman is arguably America’s greatest Each of the poems is listed as an entry in Part II Wpoet; his influence on poets both in the in alphabetical order by the final title given by the United States and around the world has been enor- poet in the sixth edition of Leaves of Grass (1881). mous. His free verse poetic form has become the Poems published in early editions or printings of touchstone for much of the poetry written in Leaves of Grass but later excluded are also included America since his final version of Leaves of Grass here, as are poems published in newspapers or mag- was published in 1892. azines before 1855 but not in Leaves of Grass. Also Critical Companion to Walt Whitman attempts to included are the 13 poems in “Old Age Echoes,” explain how and why Whitman’s poetry still creates which were added as an “Annex” by Whitman’s such an impact on readers. Part I presents a biogra- friend and executor Horace Traubel in a new print- phical essay on the poet; Part II presents entries on ing of Leaves of Grass (1897), Whitman having Whitman’s works (with first publication informa- himself provided the title for the annexed poems. tion), including each of Whitman’s nearly 400 pub- Excluded from Critical Companion to Walt lished poems, his 24 short stories and one novel, and Whitman are unpublished poems, manuscript frag- all of his important prose essays; Part III contains ments, and lines of poems cut by Whitman. One entries on the people, places, publications, and top- can argue that these items found in Whitman man- ics important to the poet; and Part IV contains uscript materials are of interest to scholars as a way appendices, including a Whitman chronology, a of understanding something of the poet’s changing genealogy, bibliographies of Whitman’s works and of mind at work; but an argument can also be made secondary sources, addresses where he lived, news- that they add little or nothing to the general inter- papers at which he held paid positions and others in est in Leaves of Grass as a major work of American which he published articles, a glossary of terms par- poetry. Whitman was his own best editor. ticular to Whitman usage, and Whitman’s will. Although Whitman stated that the 1892 Most of the nearly 3,000 articles Whitman wrote (“Death-bed”) printing of Leaves of Grass repre- for various newspapers are not included as separate sented his final, definitive revisions and placement entries, but many are mentioned as part of the dis- of poems, the sixth edition (1881) included all but cussion in other entries. Nearly all of the 80 news- minor revisions and so is, in this volume, the last papers and magazines that published Whitman’s date listed with a poem’s publication information. poetry are included as entries in Part III; each entry The addition of poems in two “Annexes” (“Sands at includes a list of the poems first printed in the pub- Seventy” and Good-Bye My Fancy) were the only lication. All 27 of the newspapers for which significant changes in editions after 1881, and pub- Whitman worked as a paid reporter or editor also lication information is provided for each of the have separate entries in Part III. individual poems in those groups. vii viii Critical Companion to Walt Whitman Each entry on a published work has the date of annexes. Each cluster has its entry under the title of first publication in parentheses following the title. the cluster. The annexes are entered under the All parenthetical dates for poetry entries are to edi- titles “First Annex . .” and “Second Annex. .” tions or printings of Leaves of Grass, except as oth- In both Part I and Part II of the book, any refer- erwise noted, for example those poems published in ence to a person, place, publication, or topic that is newspapers or magazines before they appeared in the subject of an entry in Part III is printed in SMALL the major work; also, unless otherwise noted, the CAPITAL LETTERS the first time it appears in a par- poem appeared in all editions and printings after ticular entry, in order to indicate a cross-reference. and between the dates provided. For example: References to entries in Part II, Whitman’s titles for “Song of Myself” has the following publication poems and prose works, are not set in small capital information in Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: letters. The inclusion of these titles as separate “First appeared as the opening poem in the first edi- entries, in other words, may be assumed. tion of Leaves of Grass (1855), untitled, as were The articles “the” and “a” come at the end of the each of the 12 poems in that edition; it was titled title; look for “A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak ‘Poem of Walt Whitman, an American’ for the sec- Gray and Dim,” for example, under “Sight in Camp ond edition (1856); it became ‘Walt Whitman’ for in the Daybreak Gray and Dim, A”; look for The the third edition (1860); it was finally presented as Brooklyn Daily Eagle under Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The. ‘Song of Myself’ for the sixth edition (1881).” In direct quotations from Whitman’s works, spelling Readers may assume, unless otherwise stated, that idiosyncrasies have been left as in the original. the poem appeared in all printings between the The author acknowledges the generous assis- dates given and in all printings after the sixth and tance, suggestions, and encouragement of the fol- final edition in 1881. lowing people: Ed Folsom, editor of Walt Whitman The sometimes complicated changes in title Quarterly Review; David Vander Muelin, (and nearly every poem had one or more title Department of English at the University of changes in its publication history) and the changing Virginia; Lance Jones, Columbus, Ohio; Facts On order of placement of each poem allows readers to File editor Jeff Soloway; and Fred Eckman (see understand something of Whitman’s thinking as he Dedication). moves from edition to edition of Leaves of Grass. —Charles M. (Tod) Oliver Whitman’s final version of Leaves included 12 Charlottesville, Virginia “clusters” of poems, 25 separate poems, and two PART I Biography Biography 3 Walt Whitman (1819–1892) Whitman was 6 feet tall, about 185 pounds, and 36 years old in 1855 when he produced one of the most important works of literature in American history. He was almost at the midpoint of the 73 years he would live. He had no idea at the time— nor did anyone else for that matter, with the possi- ble exception of Ralph Waldo EMERSON—that his 95-page book of poetry would become such an influence not just on the future of American poetry but on the future idea of democracy.