Walt Whitman

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. Walt Whitman's Specimen Days, published in 1882, provides an extraordinary picture of an aging poet reassessing the path of his long life, one intrinsically linked with the trajectory-and traumas-of the nation he cherished so deeply. Its diary-like entries, is a prose compilation of a life lived richly and in the service of others, as well an enduring portrait of...

Anne Gilchrist was a British woman of letters. Upon reading Walt Whitman's poems for the first time, she immediately wrote to the author to let him know her delight in the poems and to thank him for publishing them. Eventually she began corresponding with Whitman, this collection of letters is a captivating look at an unusual friendship.

Inspired by transcendentalism, Whitman's immortal collection includes some of the greatest poems of modern times, including his masterpiece, "Song of Myself." Shattering standard conventions, it stands as an unabashed celebration of body and nature. "The most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed."--Ralph Waldo Emerson. Walt Whitman was a poetic Visionary. He published the first edition of this monumental work in 1855...

With the first publication of "Leaves of Grass" in 1855, Walt Whitman was solidified as an American poet of undeniable importance. The poems contained in that slim volume candidly spoke of politics, slavery, sexuality, consciousness, and the spiritual world. His content was as radical as his form; he utilized free verse unlike anyone before, creating a poetic tongue that was unique and personal yet universal and cosmic. Born in New York in 1819, Whitman...

Whitman covers the Civil War, Darwin, democracy, Shakespeare, Lincoln, friendship, Brooklyn, government work, birds, rivers, technology, politics and politicians, poets, and a multitude of other topics in this indispensable volume drawn from Specimen Days, Notes Left Over, Pieces in Early Youth, November Boughs, and other works.

Discover How Whitman’s Spiritual Life and Vision Can Enlighten Your Own Whitman’s collected poems and prose are not an object or icon to be gazed upon or revered but a transparency we look through to see ourselves with greater clarity, excitement, and meaning. They wake us up to our potential, to learning about and from ourselves. To experience his writing is to experience ourselves more deeply. from the Preface by Gary David Comstock Walt Whitman...

Compiled when the great poet was 70 years old, November Boughs offers verse and prose reminiscences of a singular American life. Walt Whitman's reflections begin with the essay "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads," in which he discusses the genesis of his most famous and controversial book, Leaves of Grass. A selection of poetry titled "Sands at Seventy" is followed by a series of essays and recollections that include "Slang in America," "What...

Published in 1871, Democratic Vistas is perhaps Walt Whitman's most important prose work. Disenchanted with the pervasive corruption during the period of Reconstruction, he examines democracy and its problems during this era, arguing for a balance between individualism and democracy, and ultimately expressing his belief in the triumph of the democratic ideal.

A fully unexpurgated collection that restores the sexual vitality and subversive flair suppressed by Whitman himself in later editions of Leaves of Grass. A century after his death, Whitman is still celebrated as America's greatest poet. In this startling new edition of his work, Whitman biographer Gary Schmidgall presents over 200 poems in their original pristine form, in the chronological order in which they were written, with Whitman's original...

Contained within the pages of this rare book is a collection of writings taken from Walt Whitman's diaries and note-books written during his time in Canada. A keen woodsman with a passion for the outdoors, the literature contained herein was diligently transcribed for its original publication from 'out-door notes' composed on worn and time-stained fragments of paper by its editor, William Sloane Kennedy. A fascinating read, this book offers a unique...