THE INFLUENCE OF THE CIVIL WAR ON WALT V~HITMAN THE MAI’T AND ~IRITER A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FVLFIT.TJ~1RNT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS BY EMMA. OPHELIA VVEATHERS DEP.ARTNENT OF ENGLISH ATLANTA, GEORGIA & JUNE 1936 ii T.ABLE OF CONTEWTS Chapter Page Preface.... .~. .. .. .. iii I The Life and Works of Walt T~hitiri.an from 1819 to 1860 1 II The Life and Activities of Walt V~hitman from 1861 to 1873 60 111 The Works of Walt Whitman from 1861 to 1873 86 IV The Life and Works of Walt 11~hitmaai from 1873 to 1892 130 Summary and Conolus ion 161 Bib1iograph~ 170 iii PREFACE The Civil War brings a more seriou~ Whitman, with a deeper note in his writing. .Whitman2mellowed under the influence of the Civil War. Such statements as these concerning Walt Whitman are frequently made by authorities—-all agreeing that the Civil War did enriohen and mellow him as man and writer; but nowhere, so far as the present writer knows, has any author developed and shown that these statements are really true. Therefore, it will be the purpose of this thesis to study the life and works of Walt Whitman in order to establish or to disprove the truth of these statements. It will be noted that in this study greater attention was paid to Whitman the poet than to Whitman the prose writer because of the well established fact that his literary fame rests more upon his poetry than upon his prose. Nevertheless, Whitman’s prose works are important; for they present both his lit erary theories that he practiced in his poetry and his sooial, political, re ligious, and moral ideas. For this reason, the present thesis, despite the em phasis put on his poetry, represents a study of all the prose and poetic works of Walt Whitman that were available in the Atlanta University Library, together with what books that could be borrowed from the libraries of Columbia, Emory, and Duke Universities. Other works of Whitman like Calamus, Letters to Anne Gilchrist, the Camden Edition of his Complete Works, the earliest editions of Leaves of Grass, and certain periodicals like The Galaxy, The Harvard Monthly, 1 Thomas H. Dickinson, The Making of i~morioan Literature, New York, The Century Company,, [1932], p. 533. 2 Louis Waim, ad., The Rise of Realism:.Amerioan Literature from 1860 to 1888, New York, The Macmillan Catnpany, 1933, p. 5. iv The Dial, The Poet Lore, and The Critic were not consulted because the Atlanta University Library neither owned nor was able to borrow them. But the amount of available material did yield substantial data to warrant this the~is which was developed in the light of the following objectives: 1. To investigate and discuss V~hitman’s life and works from 1819-1860 with the hope of discovering the nature of the foundation of his character, interests, and ideas. 2. To present the facts in whitman’s life from 1861 to 1873 in order to ascertain both his real connection with the Civil War and the range of his interests and activities during and immediately following the War period. 3. To compare and contrast Whitmants works written during and immediate ly after the War with those composed before its incipiency. In this way, with the assistance of the two foregoing objectives, a sound and convincing answer may be worked out for the question: How much did the Civil War influence V~hit— man the man and writer? 4. To study thoroughly Whitman’s life said works from 1873 to 1892 with the view of completing the investigation of the effect of the Civil War on him as man and writer. These general objectives are developed in four chapters; and in the summary and conclusion of this study will be found an attempt to measure, in the light of the evidence given in the preceding chapters, the exact influence of the Civil War on Whitman. CHAPTER I The Life and Works of Walt Whitman from 1819 to 1860 • Leaves of Grass is ~ personal record. It is a subtle and profound autobiography.1 So writes Oscar L. Triggs, a Whitman scholar and anthologist, in the ‘introduotion of his little book, Selections from the Prose and Poetry of Walt Whitman. Trigg’s statement, however, is not very different from 2 those ~f many other authors, and, therefore, it is common consent that Whit man’s works are explicitly and implicitly autobiographical. For this reason, he must be studied, if he is to be studied at all, in the light of those outer and inner forces which are partly or greatly responsible for his develop— mant. Consequently a study of Whitman’s life is important to this thesis in order to show how certain forces contributed to the shaping of his career and ideas as a writer. The purpose of this chapter, then, is to present and to in— terpret~ the facts and main influences in Whitman’s life and works prior to 1860. His life and works as discussed in this thesis are divided into three periods~, namely, the ante—bellum period (1819—1860), the Civil War period 3 (1861—1873), the post—bellum period (1873—1892). 1 Oscar L. Triggs, Selections from The Prose and Poetry of Walt Whitman, Boston, Small, Maynard, & Company, 1906, Introduction, p. xv. 2 The fo~.lowing authors agree to this statement: Lion Bazalgette, Walt Whitman The Man and His Work, translated from the French by Ellen Fitz Gerald, Garden City, New york, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1920, p. 134; John Burroughs, Whit man, A Study, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. L19243, p. 73; Clara Barrus, Whitman~ atiUBurroughs Comrades, Boston, 11oughton Miffun Company, 1931, Intro duction, p. i; Bliss Perry, Walt Whitman Hi~ Life and Works, Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company. (190~J, p. 56; Floyd Stovall, Walt Whitman, Atlanta, American Book 0o~ipany, \~L9342, Introduction, p. xiii; Basil De Silineourt, Walt Whitman A Critical Stu4~ London, Martin Seeker, MC~IV, p. 9; Richard M. Buoke, “The Man Walt Whitman’, In Re Walt Whitman, ed., Horace L. Traubel, Richard M. Buoke, Thomas B. flamed, Philadelphia, David McKay, 1893, p. 59. 3 i Authors have divided Whitman’s life in different ways: John Bailey divides Whitman!e life as follows: 1819 to 1848; 1848 to 1873; and 1873 to 1892. See John BaIley, Walt Whitman, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1926, p. 9. Bliss Perry makes the following divisions: 1818 to 1839; 1839 to 1855; 1855 to 1861; 1861 to,l865; 1865 to 1873; 1873 to 1892. See Bliss Perry, op. cit., Table of Contents. I a This seems pertinent, for by it one might effectively énswer the basic questio of this thesis: what effect did the Civil War have on. Walt Whitman as man and writer? Walt Whitman, born on May 31, 1819, owT from an ancestry that was 3 mixed, sturdy, and proletariat. The Whitmans viere of English ~took having, probabl~ descended directly from Zeoharish Whitman, who, coming from England in 1635, settled at Milford, Connecticut. Z,ohariah and his progeny were not prominent and distinguished, but they were simple nen of the soil, hearty, strong, firm, and phlegmatic. Indeed, as Maurice Buck., writer of the first full Whitman biography, characterized Whitman’s ancestry, it was a “still, solid, tall, strang—franed, long—lived race of nem, moderate of speech, friendly, fond of their land and of horses and cattle, sluggish in their 6 passions, but fearful when once started~1 1 The Poet was called Walt to distinguish him from his father. 8. Bliss Perry, cit., p. 8. Emory Uoflciway, The UncoUeed Poetry and Prose of Walt Whitman, New York, Peter Smith, 1932, 1, Introduction, p. xxiii ft. Hereafter this book,~ with its volone muaber, will be referred to as Uncollected Poetry and Prose. See also idon Bazalgette, op. cit., p. 10; Basil De Silinoourt, op. iit.,7 ~p. 10. H. B. Biuns, A Life of Walt Whitman, London, Methuen & Co., (19053, pp. 5, 6. See also John A. Syaaonds, Walt Whi~n A Study, London, John C. Nimno, MDCCCXCVE, Introduction, p. xi; and ~tTnooI1e4tid Poetry and Proee,I, Introduc tion, p. xxiii. 4 Walt Whitman, Prose Works, Philadelphia, David MoKay~. fn. d.) , p. 9. Here aftir this Vóluma, unless otheTwiae stated, will be usea, and Will be referred to as Prose Works. Zeobariah Whitman was an Independent clergyman and an or dained teaöher. Even though Whitman is certain that he was a descendant of Z.OhBXiah, Bliss Perry states that Zchariah died without leaving any ancestors and that Walt is a descendant of Joseph Whitman. See Bliss Perry, op. oft., n. 2, p. 2. See also George Carpenter, Walt Whitman, Nw York, The Macmillan Company, 1924, p. 4. 5 Their character was so firm that it verged upon hardness • See Lion Ba:algette, op. cit., p. 13. 6 Richard N. Buck., Walt Whitman, Philadelphia, David McKay, 1883, pp. 13—15. :3: It seems, on the other hand, that Whitman’s maternal ancestors, the -~ Van Yeleore, wero characterized more by their “abundant vitality and 3ovia1it~” than by any sluggish and massive strength as was true of the Whitm*’is. They, however, like the I’Vhitmans, were struggling farmers, and in addition, they were 2 stock raiSers, artisans, and sailors. Like thö Whitmans, also, the family could boast of no eminent son. or daughter worthy of particular study. Thus both the Van Velsor and Whitman genealogies are biown only because of their cele brated offspring, Walt. Whitman. The Van Velsors were pure Dutch, but Cornel ius Van Velsor, Whitman~s grandfather, married Naaai Williams, a Welsh de .3 acendanb, and a Quaker in religious beliefs.