1 00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:07,920 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Everybody banned Books Week starts tomorrow September, so 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:10,360 Speaker 1: we thought we would pull something out of the archive 3 00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:14,840 Speaker 1: that's relevance, and this is our April seventeen episode on 4 00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:19,280 Speaker 1: Walt Whitman. Among other things, his Leaves of Grass was 5 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 1: infamously banned in Boston. Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed 6 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:36,760 Speaker 1: in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello, 7 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:40,279 Speaker 1: and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy Wilson and I'm 8 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:43,680 Speaker 1: Holly Frying. It would be really hard to grow up 9 00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 1: in the United States and not at least here of 10 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:48,920 Speaker 1: Walt Whitman. I'm trying to think of how that would 11 00:00:48,920 --> 00:00:52,400 Speaker 1: work if you were in any sort of public school system. 12 00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:55,920 Speaker 1: M hmm. It's it's such an alien concept that you 13 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:59,320 Speaker 1: would miss it that I'm trying to figure out if 14 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:03,360 Speaker 1: there's any weird pocket where that could happen. Your biographical 15 00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:06,640 Speaker 1: summaries of him kick off with descriptions like arguably the 16 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:10,119 Speaker 1: best and most influential poet to hail from the United States, 17 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:12,319 Speaker 1: Like is some kind of requirement, like that is the 18 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:17,200 Speaker 1: first first sentence every time is glowing praise for Walt Whitman, 19 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 1: And then poems like Beat Beat drums and I hear 20 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:24,400 Speaker 1: America singing, and When Lilacs Last and the Doryard Bloomed 21 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,560 Speaker 1: are staples of English classes. And then some of those 22 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:32,280 Speaker 1: same ones also run alongside history lessons on the Civil War. Uh. 23 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:34,880 Speaker 1: And then of course there's Oh Captain, My Captain, which 24 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:39,880 Speaker 1: is deeply rooted in pop culture thanks to dead poets 25 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:43,319 Speaker 1: society well, and I think people even invoke it without 26 00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:45,959 Speaker 1: having any idea really what it is or what it's 27 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,760 Speaker 1: from sometimes like or who wrote it. So apart from 28 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 1: all of this work that is such a staple in 29 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:58,120 Speaker 1: mainstream English and history classes, Walt Whitman's life ran alongside 30 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:00,400 Speaker 1: and interacted with a lot of US history and a 31 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 1: lot of in a lot of ways. His poetry was 32 00:02:03,480 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 1: like about America and an attempt to embody the United 33 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:13,119 Speaker 1: States in this really utopia kind of idealistic way. So 34 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:15,320 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that intersection of history and 35 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:17,160 Speaker 1: his life and work today. And this is also a 36 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: listener request from Molly, who sent us an email not 37 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:22,800 Speaker 1: too long ago, uh, just sort of dropping at the 38 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,040 Speaker 1: end that she would love to hear a podcast about 39 00:02:25,120 --> 00:02:27,799 Speaker 1: Walt Whitman, and that kind of tickled in the back 40 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: of my brain for a while, and then by total coincidence, 41 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: he came up recently on our a couple of different podcasts. 42 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:38,440 Speaker 1: He came up in our live show on HP Lovecraft, 43 00:02:38,480 --> 00:02:42,799 Speaker 1: who was similarly self promotional, and then he also came 44 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: up in our Prospect Park podcast about Brooklyn because that 45 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: is where he lived for much of his life. Uh 46 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:51,960 Speaker 1: and and what Whitman started that life when he was 47 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,480 Speaker 1: born on May thirty one, eighteen nineteen. His parents were 48 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 1: Walter Whitman and Luisa van Velsor. Walt was named after 49 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:03,520 Speaker 1: his father. Walter Sr. Made his living as a carpenter 50 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:06,640 Speaker 1: and as a farmer, and young Walt was their second child, 51 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:10,920 Speaker 1: and he would ultimately have eight siblings who survived their infancy. 52 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:15,240 Speaker 1: This family was both proud and patriotic. Walt and his 53 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:19,040 Speaker 1: older siblings were named after parents and grandparents, and three 54 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:22,680 Speaker 1: of his younger brothers were named for Andrew Jackson, George Washington, 55 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:25,680 Speaker 1: and Thomas Jefferson. Kind Of as a side note, UH, 56 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:29,520 Speaker 1: Andrew Jackson Whitman was actually born before Andrew Jackson became 57 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 1: president or was even uh elected president. He was at 58 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 1: that point better known as a national hero for his 59 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:38,760 Speaker 1: victory over the British in New Orleans during the War 60 00:03:38,840 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve. They're also the details are a little 61 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:45,360 Speaker 1: bit hazy, but but Walt's youngest brother, Edward, was the 62 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 1: only one of the Whitman children who wasn't named after 63 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:51,840 Speaker 1: a family member or a prominent political figure. He was 64 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:55,040 Speaker 1: disabled from birth and required care for the whole of 65 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 1: his life. When Walt was four, the family moved from 66 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:01,320 Speaker 1: their home in West Hills on law Long Island to Brooklyn. 67 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:03,760 Speaker 1: And Brooklyn is now one of the boroughs of New 68 00:04:03,800 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 1: York City, but at the time it was a separate city, 69 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: and Walt's father was hopeful that Brooklyn's rapid growth would 70 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:12,720 Speaker 1: bring him work as a carpenter or a prophet as 71 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:15,760 Speaker 1: a land speculator, and neither of those really worked out, 72 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:18,800 Speaker 1: and consequently the family moved around a lot, and they 73 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 1: really struggled to make ends meet. When Walt was about six, 74 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: the Marquis de Lafayette arrived in Brooklyn as part of 75 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,880 Speaker 1: his grand tour of the United States. I kind of 76 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:32,120 Speaker 1: want to do an episode on this whole tour. It 77 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:36,679 Speaker 1: was in part for the fiftieth anniversary of the nation's founding. 78 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:42,120 Speaker 1: He was met with huge fanfare and with enthusiastic receptions 79 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: all over the country, with roads and squares being renamed 80 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:49,400 Speaker 1: in his honor. In Brooklyn, Lafayette was to lay the 81 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:52,600 Speaker 1: cornerstone of a new free public library, and while he 82 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:54,960 Speaker 1: and other men who were there were basically picking children 83 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: up and moving them out of the way of this 84 00:04:57,240 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: hole that had been dug, Lafayette picked up the young 85 00:05:00,560 --> 00:05:03,120 Speaker 1: Walt Whitman and gave him a hug and a kiss 86 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 1: before putting him down again. Was something he would remember 87 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:08,839 Speaker 1: for the rest of his life and at some points 88 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:13,080 Speaker 1: kind of add a almost prophetic layer to how he 89 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:18,400 Speaker 1: was being blessed for democracy. Walt's only real formal education 90 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 1: took place in Brooklyn's newly founded public schools, which he 91 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:25,560 Speaker 1: attended for about six years. He also took steps to 92 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:30,800 Speaker 1: educate himself outside of schools through nearby libraries, theaters, and museums, 93 00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:34,680 Speaker 1: as well as by attending lectures. The Whitman family wasn't 94 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 1: a member of any religious denomination, but Elias Hicks, a 95 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:42,320 Speaker 1: Quaker and abolitionist, lived in New York, and Walt attended 96 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:46,520 Speaker 1: his lectures. When the young Walt began his apprenticeship as 97 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:49,160 Speaker 1: a type setter, at the Long Island Patriot. At the 98 00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:51,919 Speaker 1: age of twelve, he left school to do so, and 99 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:54,839 Speaker 1: at that point he had more formal education than either 100 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:59,719 Speaker 1: of his parents. He continued, though, with just voracious reading 101 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:03,280 Speaker 1: and self education, and he started writing as well, both 102 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:06,880 Speaker 1: for The Patriot and for other newspapers. When his family 103 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:09,479 Speaker 1: moved back to Long Island in eighteen thirty three, he 104 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:13,000 Speaker 1: stayed behind in Brooklyn and he continued to learn and work. 105 00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:16,880 Speaker 1: In addition to his journalistic writing for the newspapers where 106 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:19,120 Speaker 1: he was working in other newspapers in the area, he 107 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:22,479 Speaker 1: was also starting to write poetry, although at this point 108 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:27,360 Speaker 1: most of his poems followed the very conventional patterns of 109 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:31,600 Speaker 1: meter and rhyme that were pretty much standard in poetry. 110 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:34,720 Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty five, the Great Fire of New York 111 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:39,080 Speaker 1: derailed Walt's career in printing in journalism. This fire started 112 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:41,560 Speaker 1: in a warehouse, but it spread rapidly due to a 113 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:44,680 Speaker 1: combination of high winds and bitter cold that made it 114 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:48,320 Speaker 1: nearly impossible for firefighters to draw water from the East River. 115 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 1: In addition to engulfing warehouses, newly built shops, and the 116 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 1: Merchant Exchange, the fire gutted the offices of most of 117 00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:00,400 Speaker 1: the city's newspapers and journals. New York's printing industry was 118 00:07:00,480 --> 00:07:04,800 Speaker 1: virtually destroyed. This is one of a number of fires 119 00:07:04,839 --> 00:07:08,719 Speaker 1: that just really gutted the printing industry and other industries 120 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:11,840 Speaker 1: in New York and Brooklyn, and so women had to 121 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:14,840 Speaker 1: find another job. He embarked on a new career as 122 00:07:14,840 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: a teacher at the age of seventeen. Although he did 123 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 1: have an interest in education and in how people learn, 124 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:24,160 Speaker 1: this was not a job he was very enthusiastic about. 125 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:27,000 Speaker 1: It was either that or go back home to work 126 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: on his father's farm, which he did not want to do. 127 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:33,200 Speaker 1: At one point he did try to start his own newspaper, 128 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:36,000 Speaker 1: The Long Islander, which ran for about a year beginning 129 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty eight, but otherwise he spent five fairly 130 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:44,880 Speaker 1: unhappy years after the fires as an itinerant teacher. He 131 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:48,640 Speaker 1: taught in small, generally one room schools on Long Island. 132 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:52,680 Speaker 1: To him, these rural communities paled in comparison to the 133 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:55,760 Speaker 1: bustle and excitement of New York. He wrote of one 134 00:07:55,800 --> 00:08:00,640 Speaker 1: of them, quote, ignorance, vulgarity, rudeness, conceit, and dullness are 135 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: the reigning gods of this deuced sink of despair, and 136 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:06,360 Speaker 1: it was all the worse because he felt like he 137 00:08:06,400 --> 00:08:08,840 Speaker 1: was spending the best years of his youth in remote 138 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:11,960 Speaker 1: backwater parts of New York doing work that he didn't like. 139 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:17,440 Speaker 1: He also really wasn't what these communities expected in a 140 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:21,840 Speaker 1: country teacher. Rather than the memorization and repetition and wrote 141 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:25,240 Speaker 1: recitations that were common in the classroom, he favored the 142 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:29,200 Speaker 1: techniques that were advocated by the educational reformers of the day, 143 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:33,280 Speaker 1: including a more holistic approach to the classroom, open ended 144 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:36,080 Speaker 1: discussions and games. It was a lot more like the 145 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:40,760 Speaker 1: classroom under past podcast subject Bronson Alcott, who Whitman did 146 00:08:40,840 --> 00:08:44,079 Speaker 1: meet later on in his life. And there are rumors 147 00:08:44,160 --> 00:08:47,280 Speaker 1: that Whitman's career as an educator came to a scandalous 148 00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:50,400 Speaker 1: end that at the age of twenty one or twenty two, 149 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:53,040 Speaker 1: he was tarred, feathered, and run out of town on 150 00:08:53,040 --> 00:08:56,280 Speaker 1: a rail after being sexually involved with a male student. 151 00:08:56,920 --> 00:08:59,640 Speaker 1: But while this story has become a persistent part of 152 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: the history of the coastal town of south Old, Long Island, 153 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:06,960 Speaker 1: there's actually no documentation that it ever happened, or of 154 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:11,400 Speaker 1: Whitman ever having been a teacher. There There is, on 155 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:14,480 Speaker 1: the other hand, documentation that Whitman's time as a teacher, 156 00:09:14,679 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: including during the winters of eighteen forty or eighteen forty one, 157 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:21,280 Speaker 1: when the incident allegedly took place, was spent on the 158 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:24,800 Speaker 1: other end of Long Island, fifty miles or more away. 159 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 1: He also vacationed in Southhold after that point, which, as 160 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:31,000 Speaker 1: we said earlier, is on the coast, and he did 161 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:32,839 Speaker 1: that in later years, which would have been kind of 162 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 1: an odd choice if he had previously been tarred and 163 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:40,040 Speaker 1: feathered there. Regardless, in the early eighteen forties, Whitman did 164 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:42,360 Speaker 1: give up teaching, and he moved to New York City, 165 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:44,480 Speaker 1: this time to try to pay his bills through a 166 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:48,280 Speaker 1: combination of journalism and fiction writing. And we're going to 167 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:51,160 Speaker 1: talk about his return to journalism. After we first paused 168 00:09:51,200 --> 00:10:01,400 Speaker 1: for a little sponsor break in the first half of 169 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:04,840 Speaker 1: the eighteen forties, Walt Whitman kept up a steady stream 170 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:08,679 Speaker 1: of short stories, published in more than twenty magazines, journals, 171 00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:13,120 Speaker 1: and newspapers. He published longer works as well. His first novel, 172 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:17,000 Speaker 1: Franklin Evans The Inebriate, came out in eighteen forty two. 173 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:19,839 Speaker 1: This was written both to try to earn money from 174 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:23,360 Speaker 1: having written a novel and also to support the temperance movement. 175 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:28,520 Speaker 1: Walt Whitman was not in favor of drunkenness or abuses 176 00:10:28,559 --> 00:10:33,199 Speaker 1: stemming from drunkenness. Although he was able to publish regularly, 177 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: his income from doing so was not particularly regular. In 178 00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:39,800 Speaker 1: eighteen forty five, he moved back to Brooklyn, where he 179 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:42,640 Speaker 1: could live a little more frugally and have less competition 180 00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:46,120 Speaker 1: for writing jobs. By eighteen forty six, he had taken 181 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:49,080 Speaker 1: over as chief editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, a position 182 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:52,520 Speaker 1: he was ultimately fired from over the issue of slavery. 183 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:55,760 Speaker 1: He was opposed to it, but the papers publisher Isaac 184 00:10:55,840 --> 00:11:00,960 Speaker 1: van Anden backed pro slavery political candidates. At this point 185 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:04,080 Speaker 1: in his life, Walt Whitman's opposition to slavery was a 186 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:08,439 Speaker 1: lot more pragmatic than humanitarian. He wasn't at all an abolitionist. 187 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:12,120 Speaker 1: He was actually pretty sure abolitionists were going to destroy 188 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:15,800 Speaker 1: the country by forcing the issue of ending slavery. But 189 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:19,000 Speaker 1: a lot of his work in journalism was geared towards 190 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:23,479 Speaker 1: educating and improving the lives and communities of working class 191 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:26,880 Speaker 1: white people. Through his daily reporting his human interest stories 192 00:11:26,920 --> 00:11:31,160 Speaker 1: and other tidbits this uh. For this reason, he was 193 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:35,320 Speaker 1: against the expansion of slavery into the Western territories, and 194 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:38,400 Speaker 1: he was against the idea of slavery being allowed in 195 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:42,320 Speaker 1: states that were newly admitted into the Union, largely because 196 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: of what the presence of slavery would do to the job, 197 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:49,680 Speaker 1: job prospects, pay, and working conditions of white citizens. So 198 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:53,080 Speaker 1: he was against the expansion of slavery, but not for 199 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:58,720 Speaker 1: reasons that one might consider to be particularly humanitarian at 200 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:03,360 Speaker 1: this point, at least not when it came to the 201 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:08,000 Speaker 1: lives of the people who were enslaved. In eighteen forty eight, 202 00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:10,240 Speaker 1: a couple of weeks after having been fired from the 203 00:12:10,280 --> 00:12:14,199 Speaker 1: Brooklyn Eagle, a chance meeting connected Whitman to J. E. McClure, 204 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:17,360 Speaker 1: who hoped to start a newspaper in New Orleans. For 205 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:19,800 Speaker 1: the first time in his life, Whitman left the state 206 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:23,080 Speaker 1: of New York to edit the New Orleans Crescent. He 207 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:26,720 Speaker 1: quickly discovered that he loved New Orleans, particularly the melding 208 00:12:26,760 --> 00:12:30,680 Speaker 1: of French, English, and Spanish languages and the multiple cultures 209 00:12:30,679 --> 00:12:34,800 Speaker 1: in one place. However, it was also there that he 210 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:38,479 Speaker 1: really first witnessed the institution to which he had previously 211 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:42,840 Speaker 1: been so pragmatically opposed. Slavery did still exist in New 212 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:45,680 Speaker 1: York when what Whitman was born, but thanks to a 213 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:49,320 Speaker 1: gradual Emancipation Act that had been passed in seventeen ninety nine, 214 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:52,680 Speaker 1: his experience with it had been pretty limited. But in 215 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:56,480 Speaker 1: New Orleans in eighteen forty eight, slavery was flourishing, and 216 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:59,480 Speaker 1: there was a functioning auction site just down the road 217 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: from where Whitman and his younger brother were staying. So 218 00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:05,679 Speaker 1: while the idea of slavery he had been sort of 219 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:09,640 Speaker 1: something he was opposed to in theory because of how 220 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:15,640 Speaker 1: it affected white working class citizens, he now witnessed some 221 00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:20,640 Speaker 1: of its horrors firsthand. Although What Whitman was very fond 222 00:13:20,679 --> 00:13:23,200 Speaker 1: of New Orleans, his time at the Crescent didn't really 223 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:27,400 Speaker 1: work out for reasons that aren't entirely clear. It's possible 224 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,280 Speaker 1: that the point of contention was once again slavery, with 225 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:33,880 Speaker 1: the Crescent's owners afraid of what Whitman's clearly anti slavery 226 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:39,120 Speaker 1: viewpoint would do to their paper. When Whitman returned to 227 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:42,880 Speaker 1: New York that same fall, he established the Brooklyn Weekly Freeman, 228 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,920 Speaker 1: a Free Soil newspaper, which primarily works to support politicians 229 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:50,040 Speaker 1: who were running on anti slavery platforms. He did most 230 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:52,120 Speaker 1: of the writing and editing himself, and he may have 231 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:54,839 Speaker 1: even done all of the type setting. He was really 232 00:13:54,880 --> 00:13:57,720 Speaker 1: into setting type and thought it was really important that 233 00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:01,800 Speaker 1: things be set in a way contributed to the overall 234 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:06,680 Speaker 1: quality of the publication. But his goal at expanding the 235 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:10,280 Speaker 1: Brooklyn Weekly Freeman's to a daily paper was once again 236 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:13,880 Speaker 1: thwarted by a fire which destroyed his office the day 237 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:17,160 Speaker 1: after the papers first issue came out. He was able 238 00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:20,040 Speaker 1: to start over that November, although he could only keep 239 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:22,560 Speaker 1: the paper going for about a year. There's a bit 240 00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:25,360 Speaker 1: of a gap in Walt Whitman's life after his return 241 00:14:25,400 --> 00:14:28,680 Speaker 1: from New Orleans in eighty eight. We do know that 242 00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 1: he published the novel Life and Adventures of Jack Angle 243 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:35,920 Speaker 1: and Autobiography, in which the reader will find some familiar characters. 244 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:38,720 Speaker 1: The whole thing is the title. He published that in 245 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:44,520 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty two. That manuscript was rediscovered in But otherwise 246 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:47,800 Speaker 1: there's a lot less documentation about where he was or 247 00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:51,080 Speaker 1: what he was doing during that time. But somewhere in 248 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:55,400 Speaker 1: there he shifted. When he reappears in eighteen fifty five. 249 00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:59,480 Speaker 1: It's with his first manuscript of Leaves of Grass. Written 250 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:05,320 Speaker 1: in that seemingly reclusive interim, Leaves of Grass abandoned all 251 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:08,880 Speaker 1: the formal, conventional systems of meter and rhyme that had 252 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:11,960 Speaker 1: been part of his earlier work and part of pretty 253 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: much the English language poetic tradition at that point. Instead, 254 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:19,480 Speaker 1: the twelve untitled poems that were included in the first 255 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:22,920 Speaker 1: edition were all over the place in terms of length. 256 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:27,000 Speaker 1: The lines themselves were often so long that Whitman actually 257 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:31,920 Speaker 1: had the book printed on oversized paper. These poems took 258 00:15:31,920 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 1: on a lot of the same subject matter that he 259 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 1: had been writing about as a journalist, but they did 260 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:38,520 Speaker 1: so in a way that was meant to be all 261 00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:43,040 Speaker 1: enveloping and all encompassing. And their voice was not that 262 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:45,880 Speaker 1: of a writer who was cerebrally against slavery because of 263 00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:48,760 Speaker 1: its effects on the white working class. It was a 264 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:52,160 Speaker 1: voice that embraced and welcomed all people of all races 265 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: into one relentlessly optimistic vision. At this point, the United 266 00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:00,360 Speaker 1: States was increasingly divided over the issue of slavery, and 267 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,160 Speaker 1: Leaves of Grass seemed to be an attempt to unite 268 00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:08,400 Speaker 1: the whole nation in a poetic democracy. He published it himself, 269 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:12,920 Speaker 1: having seven nine copies printed, which was all he could afford. 270 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:18,160 Speaker 1: But his budget hadn't actually included binding those seven copies, 271 00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:20,280 Speaker 1: so he did that piecemeal as he had the money 272 00:16:20,320 --> 00:16:24,400 Speaker 1: to do it. He sent copies to other writers and poets, 273 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:27,880 Speaker 1: but the only one who responded was Ralph Waldo Emerson, 274 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:30,280 Speaker 1: who sent him a letter that began, quote, I greet 275 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:34,760 Speaker 1: you at the beginning of a great career. Emerson's praise 276 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:39,200 Speaker 1: of Whitman is completely unsurprising. In eighteen forty four, he 277 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:41,880 Speaker 1: had published an essay called The Poet, in which he 278 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:45,800 Speaker 1: called for the United States to have its own poet 279 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:50,640 Speaker 1: to record and reflect upon and shape the young nation's consciousness. 280 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:54,720 Speaker 1: Emerson's description of what this poet's work would be like 281 00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:58,920 Speaker 1: is uncannily like Leaves of Grass, to the point that 282 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:01,640 Speaker 1: some critics suggest that Whitman read this essay and then 283 00:17:01,680 --> 00:17:05,760 Speaker 1: decided to go do that thing, which would be really 284 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:09,800 Speaker 1: astute uh for the rest of his life. One of 285 00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:14,280 Speaker 1: Whitman's major ongoing endeavors would be rewriting and revising Leaves 286 00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:17,479 Speaker 1: of Grass. The second edition, which came out in eighteen 287 00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:20,760 Speaker 1: fifty six had that line from Emerson's letter about the 288 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:23,439 Speaker 1: beginning of a great career printed on the spine with 289 00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:27,960 Speaker 1: Emerson's name, but without his permission. He printed the whole 290 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:30,600 Speaker 1: letter at the back of the volume, also without permission. 291 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,760 Speaker 1: Whitman also included a collection of reviews of the first 292 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:39,000 Speaker 1: edition in the second edition, most of them negative, but 293 00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:42,960 Speaker 1: the three he wrote himself were full of praise. Uh. 294 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:45,680 Speaker 1: He also insisted that the first edition had sold out, 295 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:49,480 Speaker 1: even though its sales had been quite poor. He promoted 296 00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:54,080 Speaker 1: himself a lot. One of my literature professors in college 297 00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:56,600 Speaker 1: said that he would basically go out in the streets 298 00:17:56,600 --> 00:18:00,679 Speaker 1: of New York and sort of announce America's eight poet 299 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:05,000 Speaker 1: has arrived. Like I didn't. I didn't find that confirmed 300 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:07,120 Speaker 1: in my research for this, but I would not put 301 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:10,159 Speaker 1: it past him. He talked himself up a lot and 302 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:17,280 Speaker 1: wrote positive reviews of his own work. Uh It. It 303 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:20,000 Speaker 1: didn't work out all that well in the short term 304 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:23,359 Speaker 1: for making his work more popular, though. The eighteen fifty 305 00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:26,600 Speaker 1: six edition, which had twenty more poems than the eighteen 306 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:30,280 Speaker 1: fifty five edition, was printed on much smaller paper, his 307 00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:32,320 Speaker 1: idea being that you could put it in your pocket 308 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:35,679 Speaker 1: and read it out in the world. He added titles 309 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:38,560 Speaker 1: to the poems from the first edition. Many of these 310 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:41,400 Speaker 1: titles would change in future editions, and he also put 311 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:45,520 Speaker 1: the word poem and all the titles, apparently in response 312 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:47,879 Speaker 1: to the many critics who had basically said they weren't 313 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:50,720 Speaker 1: sure what that was in the eighteen fifty five edition, 314 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:57,359 Speaker 1: but it was definitely not poetry, and now he could say, yes, huh, 315 00:18:57,359 --> 00:19:00,960 Speaker 1: it says so in the title Uh. This time he 316 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:07,080 Speaker 1: had a thousand copies printed. Those also sold terribly. Yes, 317 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:09,919 Speaker 1: he was not He was not doing well, and around 318 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:13,320 Speaker 1: this time Whitman became part of New York City's bohemian crowd, 319 00:19:13,840 --> 00:19:18,240 Speaker 1: frequenting five Saloon and becoming connected with other writers and artists, 320 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:23,120 Speaker 1: as well as abolitionists and women's rights workers. Even though 321 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,400 Speaker 1: his own work wasn't selling well or being reviewed very 322 00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:28,679 Speaker 1: well out in the rest of the world, he became 323 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:31,920 Speaker 1: something of a celebrity within the New York bohemian scene, 324 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:36,200 Speaker 1: in part because of his work sexual overtones, especially since 325 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:41,919 Speaker 1: sometimes these overtones were somewhat homorotic. Whitman's plan for his 326 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:45,040 Speaker 1: next edition of Leaves of Grass was to once again 327 00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:49,240 Speaker 1: publish it himself, but in eighteen sixty he was contacted 328 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:53,120 Speaker 1: by William Sayer and Charles Eldridge, who were abolitionist publishers. 329 00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:57,440 Speaker 1: They offered him a book deal, and Walt Whitman immediately 330 00:19:57,480 --> 00:19:59,520 Speaker 1: took them up on it, and he traveled to Boston 331 00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:02,679 Speaker 1: to see the type setting himself, something that he had 332 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:05,760 Speaker 1: done for all his prior books, and which, as Tracy 333 00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:08,679 Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, he thought was critical to the work as 334 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:12,440 Speaker 1: a whole. The eighteen sixty edition of Leaves of Grass, 335 00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:16,040 Speaker 1: against the advice of Ralph Waldo Emerson, went even further 336 00:20:16,119 --> 00:20:19,439 Speaker 1: than the first two had, and those have been labeled 337 00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:22,600 Speaker 1: as I've seen in some circles, and its inclusion of 338 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: sexuality that included Children of Adam, which was all about 339 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:29,840 Speaker 1: the physical body and a celebration of sex between men 340 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:33,200 Speaker 1: and women, and the Calamus Cluster, which was a celebration 341 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:37,600 Speaker 1: of love between men. Because it was more sexually explicit, 342 00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:41,000 Speaker 1: Children of Adam got way more criticism, and the eighteen 343 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:43,680 Speaker 1: sixty edition of Leaves of Grass stoked a lot more 344 00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:48,040 Speaker 1: controversy than the previous two had. And finally, the eighteen 345 00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:51,440 Speaker 1: sixty edition of Leaves of Grass both sold well and 346 00:20:51,560 --> 00:20:55,040 Speaker 1: garnered praise, even as people who objected to its sexual 347 00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:58,760 Speaker 1: content called for it to be banned, and sometimes successfully. 348 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,240 Speaker 1: The first printing of a thousand copies sold out, and 349 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:06,680 Speaker 1: the publisher ordered another run. Although it seemed like Whitman's 350 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:10,639 Speaker 1: literary star was finally rising, this didn't last long. His 351 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:13,879 Speaker 1: publisher went bankrupt and they sold the plates for Leaves 352 00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:16,879 Speaker 1: of Grass to another publisher who kept using them to 353 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:19,880 Speaker 1: print more copies. Even as Whitman was trying to work 354 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:24,000 Speaker 1: on new editions of the book, his family also started 355 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:27,479 Speaker 1: to have a lot of problems there had This was 356 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:30,879 Speaker 1: not completely new. There had been problems within the family before, 357 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:33,720 Speaker 1: but it seems to start to come to a head. 358 00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:37,480 Speaker 1: His sister was in an abusive marriage, and his brother 359 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,360 Speaker 1: had increasingly violent tendencies and seemed to have some kind 360 00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:45,359 Speaker 1: of mental illness happening. But these problems went beyond his 361 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:49,480 Speaker 1: personal concerns. The Civil War began in eighteen sixty one, 362 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:52,439 Speaker 1: and this would radically change Whitman's life and work, And 363 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:54,560 Speaker 1: we were going to talk about that after we have 364 00:21:54,600 --> 00:22:07,000 Speaker 1: a little sponsor break. Prior to the Civil War, Whitman's 365 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:10,320 Speaker 1: poetry was full of themes of union and connection. It 366 00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:13,119 Speaker 1: was like a love song to a nation that was 367 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,840 Speaker 1: full of diverse people's and perspectives and promise, but everyone's 368 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:21,520 Speaker 1: still remaining united. A nation at war with itself was 369 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:24,960 Speaker 1: the antithesis of what he had been celebrating and praising 370 00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:28,840 Speaker 1: and sort of optimistically believing that the nation could achieve 371 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:34,480 Speaker 1: as a writer. Compounding the actual horrors of war, which 372 00:22:34,800 --> 00:22:38,040 Speaker 1: were awful, was a sense that the nation he had 373 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:42,600 Speaker 1: been crafting through poetry had literally torn itself into In 374 00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:46,720 Speaker 1: December of eighteen sixty two, Whitman saw the name G. W. 375 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,760 Speaker 1: Whitmore on a newspaper list of men who had been 376 00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:53,199 Speaker 1: wounded at Fredericksburg. He was afraid that it was a 377 00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:57,240 Speaker 1: misspelling of his younger brother's name, George Washington. Whitman had 378 00:22:57,320 --> 00:22:59,520 Speaker 1: enlisted in the Union Army at the start of the war, 379 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:03,199 Speaker 1: and Walt Whitman went to Washington, d c. Personally to 380 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:06,880 Speaker 1: see if he could find his brother. His brother, as 381 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:09,960 Speaker 1: it turned out, had indeed been wounded, but his condition 382 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,720 Speaker 1: was not serious. But soon after that Whitman saw a 383 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:17,159 Speaker 1: pile of amputated limbs outside of a mansion that was 384 00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:21,080 Speaker 1: being used as a field hospital. He was sickened by 385 00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:24,000 Speaker 1: this site, and he decided to stay in Washington and 386 00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:26,640 Speaker 1: do something that had already been part of his typical 387 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:30,320 Speaker 1: routine for years, which was visiting sick and injured people 388 00:23:30,400 --> 00:23:35,160 Speaker 1: at the hospital. There are accounts that describe Whitman as 389 00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:37,879 Speaker 1: a nurse, but for the most part he really wasn't 390 00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:40,639 Speaker 1: doing that sort of hands on medical care that you 391 00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:43,680 Speaker 1: would think of with the word nurse. He was visiting 392 00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:47,360 Speaker 1: and talking to people and offering comfort and bringing gifts. 393 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,800 Speaker 1: His work was tireless necessary and garnered praise, but he 394 00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:55,320 Speaker 1: was more of a companion rather than a caregiver. He 395 00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:57,840 Speaker 1: also ran errands and wrote letters on behalf of the 396 00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:01,680 Speaker 1: sick and injured, and he also assisted in burying the dead. 397 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:05,320 Speaker 1: His original plan had been to go to Washington, confirm 398 00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:07,760 Speaker 1: whether his brother was okay, and then go back to 399 00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:11,439 Speaker 1: New York. Instead, he stayed in the capital for eleven 400 00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:15,159 Speaker 1: years until long after the war was over. While he 401 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:17,960 Speaker 1: still made trips home to New York and also to Boston, 402 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:20,680 Speaker 1: he started to think of Washington and not New York, 403 00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,280 Speaker 1: as his home. During this time, he also developed close, 404 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:27,680 Speaker 1: loving relationships with several of the men he visited, including 405 00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:30,480 Speaker 1: Confederate soldiers who were being held as prisoners of war. 406 00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:33,879 Speaker 1: Although he'd let his family know that he would be 407 00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:36,679 Speaker 1: staying in Washington for a while, he didn't really have 408 00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:40,360 Speaker 1: the funds to support himself while working in the hospitals, 409 00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:42,919 Speaker 1: so he worked a variety of jobs, including at the 410 00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:46,000 Speaker 1: Paymaster's office and at the Indian Bureau of the Department 411 00:24:46,040 --> 00:24:49,240 Speaker 1: of the Interior. He was eventually fired from that when 412 00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:51,600 Speaker 1: his boss realized that he was the guy who wrote 413 00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:56,040 Speaker 1: Leaves of Grass. There's some accounts that say it was 414 00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:58,200 Speaker 1: because that he found a copy of Leaves of Grass 415 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:00,679 Speaker 1: on his desk. Either way, he got fired because of 416 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:05,679 Speaker 1: Leaves of Grass. Women's Civil War experiences would lead to 417 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:10,000 Speaker 1: one of his few, originally not Leaves of Grass, publications 418 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,080 Speaker 1: of poetry, and that was Drum Taps. He signed a 419 00:25:13,119 --> 00:25:15,600 Speaker 1: contract for its publication near the end of the war, 420 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:18,480 Speaker 1: and it was already ready to go to print when 421 00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:22,080 Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, although he was able to write 422 00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,119 Speaker 1: and add Hushed be the Camps Today, which was dedicated 423 00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:27,560 Speaker 1: to Lincoln before the book went to the type setter. 424 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:31,959 Speaker 1: By coincidence, Whitman was at his mother's house in April 425 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:35,359 Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty five when Lincoln was assassinated. He had 426 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:37,520 Speaker 1: also been away from Washington, d c. When it was 427 00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:40,879 Speaker 1: attacked by the Confederate army, and when the war officially ended. 428 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,520 Speaker 1: It was his mother's door and lilacs that featured in 429 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,600 Speaker 1: his elegiate poem When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed. 430 00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:52,560 Speaker 1: That poem and Oh Captain, My Captain, were later published 431 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,159 Speaker 1: in a volume called Sequel to drum Taps. Around the 432 00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,240 Speaker 1: end of the war, Whitman met Peter Doyle, a former 433 00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:02,560 Speaker 1: Confederate so oldier originally from Ireland. He was working as 434 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:05,560 Speaker 1: a street car driver. Doyle would later describe it, we 435 00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:08,840 Speaker 1: fell to each other at once. Women and Doyle never 436 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:12,919 Speaker 1: lived together, although Whitmen often wrote of wanting to, and 437 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:16,399 Speaker 1: their relationship continued for most of the rest of Whitman's life, 438 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:21,440 Speaker 1: although it did cool after he left Washington. After the war, 439 00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,879 Speaker 1: Whitman had to figure out what to do with his poetry. 440 00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,520 Speaker 1: Leaves of Grass had been a celebration of a grand, chaotic, 441 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:31,879 Speaker 1: all welcoming spirit of democracy and of a young nation 442 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:35,040 Speaker 1: growing up into a country that was dynamic and energetic 443 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:38,800 Speaker 1: and free. The post Civil War nation didn't feel like 444 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:42,520 Speaker 1: that at all. The eighteen sixty seven edition of Leaves 445 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:45,960 Speaker 1: of Grass that followed was full of errors and assembled 446 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:50,880 Speaker 1: in multiple configurations. Some versions included drum taps and sequel 447 00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:53,840 Speaker 1: to drum Taps, but others did not, and their ordering 448 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,919 Speaker 1: changed from one to another. It was as though the 449 00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:00,000 Speaker 1: book had been torn up and then haphazardly put back together. 450 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:03,720 Speaker 1: Other Whitman seemed to approach Leaves of Grass as though 451 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:06,560 Speaker 1: the book of poems was the United States, and in 452 00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:09,400 Speaker 1: future editions he would continue to try to figure out 453 00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:12,200 Speaker 1: how to unite all of his work from both before 454 00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:15,720 Speaker 1: and after the war into one unified whole that still 455 00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:19,440 Speaker 1: made sense. He wrote other work as well, including Democratic 456 00:27:19,560 --> 00:27:22,760 Speaker 1: Vistas and Passage to India, which came out each of 457 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:27,960 Speaker 1: them in eighteen seventy. On January twenty three, eighteen seventy three, 458 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:32,320 Speaker 1: Walt Whitman had a serious stroke. That may His mother's 459 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,800 Speaker 1: health began to fail, and he managed to make it 460 00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,240 Speaker 1: to Camden, New Jersey to see her just three days 461 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:40,720 Speaker 1: before she died. After trying to go back to Washington, 462 00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:43,320 Speaker 1: he soon wound up in Camden again to live with 463 00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:47,520 Speaker 1: his brother George and George's wife, lou The Whitman's health 464 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:51,600 Speaker 1: continued to decline, he kept publishing both poetry and prose, 465 00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:55,399 Speaker 1: including a revised Memoranda during the War, which came out 466 00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:59,480 Speaker 1: as part of American Centennial celebrations, along with a slightly 467 00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:04,360 Speaker 1: revised centennial version of Leaves of Grass. His health did 468 00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:06,879 Speaker 1: eventually start to improve, and he was able to have 469 00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:10,159 Speaker 1: a pretty active life for a while in Camden. By 470 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:14,040 Speaker 1: the eighteen eighties, women's work had gained international attention, and 471 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:17,159 Speaker 1: ardent admirers from Europe came to the United States to 472 00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,639 Speaker 1: visit him. One was and gil Christ, who published an 473 00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:24,040 Speaker 1: essay called a Woman's Estimate of Walt Whitman, which included 474 00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,400 Speaker 1: the line quote for me, the reading of his poems 475 00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:30,879 Speaker 1: is truly a new birth of the soul. Gil Christ 476 00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:34,240 Speaker 1: and Whitman maintained a multi year correspondence before he sent 477 00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:36,399 Speaker 1: her a ring as a symbol of friendship, and she 478 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:38,920 Speaker 1: came to the United States with her children and stayed 479 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:43,320 Speaker 1: for eighteen months. Another visitor was Oscar Wilde, who made 480 00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:47,480 Speaker 1: not one but two stops in Camden, saying quote, before 481 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,520 Speaker 1: I leave America, I must see you again. There is 482 00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:54,000 Speaker 1: no one in this wide, great world of America whom 483 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:58,240 Speaker 1: I love and honor so much. The gay rights movement 484 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,560 Speaker 1: did not yet exist, and the word homosexual would not 485 00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:05,680 Speaker 1: even be coined until eight the year that Walt Whitman died, 486 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:09,600 Speaker 1: but there were laws in place already that criminalized same 487 00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:14,400 Speaker 1: sex behavior, and people fighting against those laws. Whitman's visitors 488 00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,760 Speaker 1: from England included Edward Carpenter, who was living openly with 489 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:20,680 Speaker 1: another man and who credited Leaves of Grass with having 490 00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:24,160 Speaker 1: inspired him to leave university, give away his money, and 491 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,960 Speaker 1: work toward the betterment of mankind, and today Carpenter is 492 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:32,320 Speaker 1: considered one of the first gay rights activists. In eighteen 493 00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:36,560 Speaker 1: eighty one, Boston publisher James R. Osgot and Company decided 494 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:39,400 Speaker 1: to publish a new edition of Leaves of Grass, but 495 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:43,280 Speaker 1: Boston District Attorney Oliver Stevens wrote to Osgod saying that 496 00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:47,400 Speaker 1: the book was obscene. Whitman, thinking that they were asking 497 00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:50,400 Speaker 1: for minor alterations, suggested that he might be willing to 498 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:52,800 Speaker 1: make changes to get the book in print, but when 499 00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,760 Speaker 1: he saw this lengthy list of poems that would have 500 00:29:55,840 --> 00:30:00,360 Speaker 1: to be removed entirely, he replied, quote the list whole 501 00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,560 Speaker 1: and several is rejected by me and will not be 502 00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:07,520 Speaker 1: thought of under any circumstances. Leaves of Grass then became 503 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:11,920 Speaker 1: one of the books infamously banned in Boston and What. 504 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:14,600 Speaker 1: Whitman lived in Camden for the rest of his life, 505 00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:17,320 Speaker 1: eventually moving into a house of his own after his 506 00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:22,160 Speaker 1: brother moved into the country. He died on March two 507 00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:26,120 Speaker 1: at the age of seventy two. You can read basically 508 00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:30,640 Speaker 1: every Walp Woman poem there is on the internet for free, 509 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:33,760 Speaker 1: because it is all in the public domain now. But 510 00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:37,160 Speaker 1: I wanted to end with one, so I have a 511 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:39,520 Speaker 1: short one because today's episode is a little on a 512 00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:44,600 Speaker 1: longish side, and this is long too long America, long 513 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:48,760 Speaker 1: too long, America, traveling roads all even and peaceful. You 514 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:53,960 Speaker 1: learned from joys and prosperity only, but now now to 515 00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:59,440 Speaker 1: learn from crises of anguish, advancing, grappling with direst fate 516 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,920 Speaker 1: and record willing not, and now to conceive and show 517 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:06,320 Speaker 1: to the world what your children on Mass really are. 518 00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:11,040 Speaker 1: For who except myself has yet conceived what your children 519 00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:21,920 Speaker 1: on Mass really are? That is what Whitman. Thanks so 520 00:31:22,040 --> 00:31:25,080 Speaker 1: much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode 521 00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:26,920 Speaker 1: is out of the archive, if you heard an email 522 00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,360 Speaker 1: address or a Facebook U r L or something similar 523 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:32,240 Speaker 1: over the course of the show that could be obsolete now. 524 00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:36,880 Speaker 1: Our current email address is History podcast at i heart 525 00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,640 Speaker 1: radio dot com. Our old health stuff works email address 526 00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,240 Speaker 1: no longer works, and you can find us all over 527 00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,920 Speaker 1: social media at missed in History. And you can subscribe 528 00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,120 Speaker 1: to our show on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, the I 529 00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:53,280 Speaker 1: heart Radio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. 530 00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:58,960 Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of 531 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,200 Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, 532 00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:05,560 Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you 533 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:11,160 Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. H m hm