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Walt Whitman: A Life
“Whitman emerges from this biography alive and kicking―hugely human, enormously attractive.”� � Newsweek A moving, penetrating, sharply focused portrait of America’s greatest poet―his genius, his passions, his androgynous sensibility―an exuberant life entwined with the turbulent history of mid-nineteenth century America. In vivid detail, Justin Kaplan, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, examines the mysterious selves of this enigmatic man whose bold voice of joy and sexual liberation embraced a growing nation…and exposes the quintessential Whitman, that perfect poet whose astonishing verse made “words sing, dance, kiss, copulate� for an entire world to hear.
464 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1980
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About the author
Justin Kaplan
47books10followersJustin Daniel "Joe" Kaplan was an American writer and editor. The general editor of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, he was best known as a biographer, particularly of Samuel Clemens, Lincoln Steffens, and Walt Whitman.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
May 21, 2019
Walt Whitman
by John White Alexander, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
My main purpose in reading this biography was to gain knowledge of Walt Whitman|(1819 � 1892) and the era in which he lived. We encounter Walt Whitman in all his complexities.
He does strike me as somewhat of a narcissist. He wrote anonymous glowing reviews of his major work “Leaves of Grass� to magazines and newspapers. It should be pointed out that “Leaves of Grass� was a work in progress for Walt Whitman. The first version was originally released in 1855. Throughout the rest of his life there were extensive add-ons plus revisions made to what had already been written. I must confess that I am not about to set out and read “Leaves of Grass� � six hundred plus pages of free-style verse has little appeal to me. Undoubtedly it has brilliance and distinctiveness here and there, but as some of the examples in the book also demonstrate it could be very self-centred and over-flowing with ego.
Walt Whitman met many famous contemporaries like Ralph Waldo Emerson who initially admired him, but the relationship cooled over the years. He also met Henry David Thoreau, but their personalities were quite different; Thoreau somewhat of a prude and misanthrope, Whitman was sociable and had a joie de vivre.
In terms of relationships Walt Whitman was ambiguous and cryptic � either loving and pursuing one who was unwilling to commit, or vice-versa. He would refer to past affairs that he may or may not have had � and to children from these affairs. But names were not mentioned. He was likely gay or bisexual (he never married). As one can imagine this would have imposed a tremendous strain and torment on his psychological well-being during that time-period. “Leaves of Grass� has verses of raw sensuality that some found reprehensible, but others admired. Emerson suggested removing certain lines, but Whitman ignored this advice.
There are stirring passages in this book on the volunteer work that Walt Whitman did in hospitals during the American Civil War. For all of his alleged progressivism there are some very reactionary aspects to Walt Whitman, for example he was opposed to giving the newly freed slaves the vote after the conclusion of the Civil War.
Walt Whitman left an indelible mark on American literature. Some say he altered poetry by making it much more spontaneous and emotional with an intense individual perspective. This book gives us a wide view of this famous American poet and his times. The author, although he admires the work of Walt Whitman, gives us many of his negative features.
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January 25, 2019DID NOT FINISH. At the age of 50 I suddenly find myself with a strong random interest in Walt Whitman and his magnum opus Leaves of Grass for the first time in my life; so as I make my way through it this winter and spring, I thought I'd also pick up a good biography of Whitman to hopefully help me put the book in the proper perspective. Unfortunately, although this one by Justin Kaplan was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize when first coming out in 1980, it is thoroughly in the tradition of biographies from the Mid-Century Modernist era -- that is, stuffily academic, written with unnecessary purplish prose, with an emphasis on the kind of minutiae that will turn off the general reader, and with a Postmodernist framework that's been structured oddly just for the sake of being structured oddly. (The first 50 pages starts with Whitman's elderly years and death, Kaplan wrongly assuming that readers already know the encyclopedic facts about his life and works, while the next 50 pages after that are dedicated to an ickily Freudian interpretation of Whitman's childhood, at which point I stopped reading.)
I think instead I'm going to do what I should've done in the first place, which is to start with Whitman's exhaustive Wikipedia page and related entries on his works; then I think I'll swap out Kaplan's book at the library for David Reynolds' 1996 Walt Whitman's America, a look at the cultural norms of the late 19th-century US that shaped and influenced Whitman and his poetry. I'd also love to hear your own recommendations for good books about Whitman, which you can leave in the comments here with my thanks!
I think instead I'm going to do what I should've done in the first place, which is to start with Whitman's exhaustive Wikipedia page and related entries on his works; then I think I'll swap out Kaplan's book at the library for David Reynolds' 1996 Walt Whitman's America, a look at the cultural norms of the late 19th-century US that shaped and influenced Whitman and his poetry. I'd also love to hear your own recommendations for good books about Whitman, which you can leave in the comments here with my thanks!
January 23, 2014
Fine research about a very interesting life, but it's a shame that a biography about an author who could write so beautifully, should itself be so poorly written.
How could this sentence get past an editor "Instead of glories Whitman had horrors previously unimaginable strung like beads on his smallest sights and hearings."
Or this whopper, “The night in August 1860 that Howells overcame his dread of Gomorrah and visited Pfaff’s fragrant temple of tobacco smoke, lager beer, Rhine wine, wurst and sauerkraut, the main fact that lodged itself in his mind was the presence of Walt Whitman, in a rough flannel coat with baggy trousers, seated at his case a little apart from the main table but clearly the object of a cult.�
That one exhausted me just retyping it.
The best-written parts of this book about poet Walt Whitman were written by Whitman himself.
Old Walt must be still shaking his head.
How could this sentence get past an editor "Instead of glories Whitman had horrors previously unimaginable strung like beads on his smallest sights and hearings."
Or this whopper, “The night in August 1860 that Howells overcame his dread of Gomorrah and visited Pfaff’s fragrant temple of tobacco smoke, lager beer, Rhine wine, wurst and sauerkraut, the main fact that lodged itself in his mind was the presence of Walt Whitman, in a rough flannel coat with baggy trousers, seated at his case a little apart from the main table but clearly the object of a cult.�
That one exhausted me just retyping it.
The best-written parts of this book about poet Walt Whitman were written by Whitman himself.
Old Walt must be still shaking his head.
July 12, 2022
Though I did not come to like Walt Whitman while reading this very thorough review of his life and work, I did get an outstanding view of the times he lived in and the forces that shaped him. He was a force unto himself and as much as I appreciate his open-minded and—at times—open-hearted stand on issues of the day, I was also repelled by his fantastic ego and mind-blowing selfishness. He opposed slavery on "principle" but seriously degraded non-whites. He worked as a nurse in the civil war hospitals but used young men as his personal adoration corps. A nice guy who wasn't nice. Kaplan did a great job bringing the person as well as the past to life.
April 4, 2011
I was excited to read this book, I hadn't read a biography of Whitman before, and it didn't let me down as far as facts go... Kaplan provides enough interesting points about Whitman's life that I felt the book was worth reading. On the other hand, the way it is written was less than stellar - it felt more like a collection of disjointed notes rather than a coherent narrative. In the end I finished it only because I was interested in Whitman's life, not because the book itself was interesting, if that makes any sense...
February 8, 2020
The original hippie. I was not aware of the deep affection that Whitman engendered within the reading public. Kaplan does a good job of capturing what it was that drew people to the poet. I visited Whitman's house in Camden NJ last summer, which lead me to read Leaves of Grass for the first time, and then to this book. I wish I had discovered this poetry decades ago. This book seemed to end abruptly, but maybe that is a good way to end a biography. Life tends to end abruptly.
November 13, 2022
A mere collecting of memorabilia ABOUT Whitman, rather than a penetration INTO his essence. Kaplan does not understand the spiritual heart of Whitman's poetry, has no feeling for the poet's own heart, puts off deep truths with glib pseudo-Freudian cliches and a disgusting arch knowingness. He had no business writing a biography of a man for whom he is incapable of feeling real sympathy.
October 8, 2014
A solid overview of the life of WW. Took it up as I was re-reading the preface to the 1855 edition and realized I wanted some context. This bio served that purpose, though the steam seemed to run out after the period of the civil war. Was that the biographer or the life itself?
July 25, 2019
A detailed, revelatory, and enjoyable read. I’ve read a lot of Whitman’s work, and wanted to read a biography of him to observe the 200th anniversary of his birth this year.
May 5, 2024
This took me three months to read which is an extraordinary amount of time for me. It dragged and I would have given up had it not been about Whitman. I did learn things not all of which I liked. I was disappointed and surprised by Whitman’s racism. Overall an okay biography which ends abruptly.
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November 5, 2021It took me half the year to read this. I had to adjust expectations for Whitman's prose, though his wartime diary entries are riveting. The prose felt like he was writing in conversation with contemporaries, but not the poetry. I often had the uncanny feeling that he was speaking directly to me, that his poetry was crafted from the first to speak across time and death, and when I read the final poem it felt so much like the two or three times have had a conversation with someone when we both knew that it was the last time we would speak to one another. My mother’s death was like that.
In the final poem to the last annex to Leaves of Grass, Whitman’s Fancy is his imagined reader, and that turned out to be me.
Good-bye my Fancy!
Farewell dear mate, dear love!
I’m going away, I know not where,
Or to what fortune, or whether I may ever see you again,
So Good-bye my Fancy!
Now for my last—let me look back a moment;
The slower fainter ticking of the clock is in me,
Exit, nightfall, and soon the heart-thud stopping,
Long have we lived, joy’d, caress’d together;
Delightful!—now separation—Good-bye my Fancy.
Yet let me not be too hasty,
Long indeed have we lived, slept, filter’d, become really blended into one;
Then if we die we die together, (yes, we’ll remain one,)
If we go anywhere we’ll go together to meet what happens,
May-be we’ll be better off and blither, and learn something,
May-be it is yourself now really ushering me to the true songs, (who knows?)
May-be it is you the mortal knob really undoing, turning—so now finally,
Good-bye—and hail! my Fancy.
In the final poem to the last annex to Leaves of Grass, Whitman’s Fancy is his imagined reader, and that turned out to be me.
Good-bye my Fancy!
Farewell dear mate, dear love!
I’m going away, I know not where,
Or to what fortune, or whether I may ever see you again,
So Good-bye my Fancy!
Now for my last—let me look back a moment;
The slower fainter ticking of the clock is in me,
Exit, nightfall, and soon the heart-thud stopping,
Long have we lived, joy’d, caress’d together;
Delightful!—now separation—Good-bye my Fancy.
Yet let me not be too hasty,
Long indeed have we lived, slept, filter’d, become really blended into one;
Then if we die we die together, (yes, we’ll remain one,)
If we go anywhere we’ll go together to meet what happens,
May-be we’ll be better off and blither, and learn something,
May-be it is yourself now really ushering me to the true songs, (who knows?)
May-be it is you the mortal knob really undoing, turning—so now finally,
Good-bye—and hail! my Fancy.
December 22, 2017
Whitman remains enigmatic. I think I enjoy literary biography though. The idea of balancing a life against a body of literature provides a lot of opportunity for the author to write about the subject without really making official concrete statements about the subjects life.
This biography is old and feels of its time. The treatment of Whitman's sexuality is cursory and safe, but present. The war years take up a lot of space, but honestly feel periphery to the the rest of the book. The chapters that stick out in my mind is the long foreground the initial publication of Leaves of Grass. The schoolmaster and journalist years of the 1830s and 1840s. These do a great job of describing the culture of New York city and upstate New York, but leave Whitman as more of an idea than a flesh and blood figure.
I did enjoy the chronology of the book. The opening chapters start in 1884 when Whitman moves to Mickle Street. It features Traubel and Whitman's Transatlantic admirers. This means that the books closing chapter is Whitman's summers at Timber Creek in the late 1870s and early 1880s and the composition and publication of Specimen Days, which the author very intriguingly positions as perhaps the final creative statement of Whitman's life. Recommended.
This biography is old and feels of its time. The treatment of Whitman's sexuality is cursory and safe, but present. The war years take up a lot of space, but honestly feel periphery to the the rest of the book. The chapters that stick out in my mind is the long foreground the initial publication of Leaves of Grass. The schoolmaster and journalist years of the 1830s and 1840s. These do a great job of describing the culture of New York city and upstate New York, but leave Whitman as more of an idea than a flesh and blood figure.
I did enjoy the chronology of the book. The opening chapters start in 1884 when Whitman moves to Mickle Street. It features Traubel and Whitman's Transatlantic admirers. This means that the books closing chapter is Whitman's summers at Timber Creek in the late 1870s and early 1880s and the composition and publication of Specimen Days, which the author very intriguingly positions as perhaps the final creative statement of Whitman's life. Recommended.
August 14, 2023
This book contains the most comprehensive Whitman works. His most famous, Leaves of Grass, is worth returning to occasionally even though to modern readers it is somewhat laborious. The format was unusual in its time and the written word was all the reader had. Most of his writing contemporaries appreciated it. I'd read that his diaries of the Civil War, Specimen Days, were some of the best on the subject. It is true. Having read much about the Civil War, I've never felt so close to the battlefields, cities, hospitals, and medical camps during the period. The details on individual patients he met and kept in touch with and the enormity of illness and deaths during the war are very informative.
September 3, 2020
At times too technical, but at other times very insightful. I especially liked the part when Whitman took money from donations that were designated for comforting his present life.
And instead, he invested the money into WALT WHITMAN’S FAMILY TOMB, built into a hillside, fronted by two vertical granite stones and a horizontal granite crossbeam inside the historic Harleigh Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey. It’s an amazingly peaceful and beautiful place.
And instead, he invested the money into WALT WHITMAN’S FAMILY TOMB, built into a hillside, fronted by two vertical granite stones and a horizontal granite crossbeam inside the historic Harleigh Cemetery in Camden, New Jersey. It’s an amazingly peaceful and beautiful place.
December 15, 2015
Kaplan brings to life one of America's greatest, and most enigmatic, literary figures. In every way intimate, Kaplan's greatest achievements are, first, the portrait of an artist on the verge of greatness, and, second, a tender vision of a great artist's final days. If you love Whitman's poetry, you must love this book, too.
September 11, 2007
cuts to the chase. Great research.
December 2, 2008
A well-researched bio of a truly ground-breaking artist whose life, flawed as it was is definitely worth examining. However, the style was a bit dry.
May 1, 2009
Not thrilled with the structure or the style of this biography. It seemed to me that he had buried his narrative.
August 18, 2011
While the book could be dry at times, I found the analysis of Whitman's personality interesting. He was into self-promotion. I found that interesting from a man who wished to be the voice of America.
February 1, 2015
An interesting read. I prefer Walt Whitman by David S. Reynolds.
November 4, 2021
Walt Whitman came to life right before me! What a full life this cat lived, well done Walt Whitman.
May 18, 2022
A thorough and well done biography. Whitman's views about slavery and emancipation a bit hard to read about.
March 30, 2024
Walt Whitman might not be America’s most famous poet (I think that may actually be Charles Bukowski at this point), but he is the most quintessentially American. He wrote paeans to representative democracy, to the majestic sprawl of that untamed land between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. His most fertile period also happened to coincide with America’s bloodiest years of rebirth as a republic, from its previous roots as a federation of sovereign states. Or, as my history professor was fond of saying: “Before the Civil War, people said ‘the United States are.� After the Civil War, they tended to say, ‘The United States is.’�
Whitman, then, can be seen as the man who gave aesthetic voice to the “is� becoming the “are.� The “are� appears to be about done as well (have they started tearing down Walt Whitman statues yet?) but that’s a topic for another day.
“Walt Whitman: A Life� gives the reader exactly what the title succinctly promises. Well, that and lots of extracts from Whitman’s poetry. He was no formalist, and tended to favor free verse, having little truck with scansion or meter, but his lines resounded then, and still resound now. He’s a bit like the literary equivalent of Aaron Copeland, expansive, forward-looking, a child of unabashed and unbridled optimism even when writing about death.
The biography follows him from his early years living among a mostly areligious family on the East Coast, on into his years working in the print industry. From there, he branched out into writing short journalistic pieces and miscellanea, broadsides, and polemics. At last he graduated to poetry, and after many years in the figurative wilderness searching for his true voice, he found it.
He was readily embraced overseas, by many of the eminences gris who happily granted him their blessing, and even sought an audience with him. Because his poems were also frank in their depiction of sex—at least for the time—many audiences bridled at his works. Unfortunately, most of his harshest critics were much closer to home, and he struggled to achieve true canonical acceptance in his own country.
And then the War Between States intervened, finally throwing his own problems into relief against the much larger tumults seizing Homo Americanus.
What ultimately emerges is an exhaustive picture of an exhausting personality, a shameless self-aggrandizer who gave Oscar Wilde’s own auto-panegyrics a run for their money. Despite his faults, though, Whitman was very much sui generis and did much to advance the form of poetry, both at home and abroad. This is his story, told very well, and with copious photos of the man who, from the very first, very consciously controlled his image.
It's an image still being projected to us from this great distance, along with his words, which, at their best, achieve the quality of some wild bird’s song. Recommended.
Whitman, then, can be seen as the man who gave aesthetic voice to the “is� becoming the “are.� The “are� appears to be about done as well (have they started tearing down Walt Whitman statues yet?) but that’s a topic for another day.
“Walt Whitman: A Life� gives the reader exactly what the title succinctly promises. Well, that and lots of extracts from Whitman’s poetry. He was no formalist, and tended to favor free verse, having little truck with scansion or meter, but his lines resounded then, and still resound now. He’s a bit like the literary equivalent of Aaron Copeland, expansive, forward-looking, a child of unabashed and unbridled optimism even when writing about death.
The biography follows him from his early years living among a mostly areligious family on the East Coast, on into his years working in the print industry. From there, he branched out into writing short journalistic pieces and miscellanea, broadsides, and polemics. At last he graduated to poetry, and after many years in the figurative wilderness searching for his true voice, he found it.
He was readily embraced overseas, by many of the eminences gris who happily granted him their blessing, and even sought an audience with him. Because his poems were also frank in their depiction of sex—at least for the time—many audiences bridled at his works. Unfortunately, most of his harshest critics were much closer to home, and he struggled to achieve true canonical acceptance in his own country.
And then the War Between States intervened, finally throwing his own problems into relief against the much larger tumults seizing Homo Americanus.
What ultimately emerges is an exhaustive picture of an exhausting personality, a shameless self-aggrandizer who gave Oscar Wilde’s own auto-panegyrics a run for their money. Despite his faults, though, Whitman was very much sui generis and did much to advance the form of poetry, both at home and abroad. This is his story, told very well, and with copious photos of the man who, from the very first, very consciously controlled his image.
It's an image still being projected to us from this great distance, along with his words, which, at their best, achieve the quality of some wild bird’s song. Recommended.
January 10, 2025
When my American literature teacher assigned Walt Whitman: A Life by Justin Kaplan, I initially approached it as just another academic requirement. We were studying Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and the book was meant to give us insight into the man behind the verses. What I didn’t expect was how deeply this biography would immerse me in Whitman’s world and profoundly change the way I viewed his work.
Kaplan’s biography is much more than a chronological account of Whitman’s life. It’s a rich, evocative portrait of a man who saw himself as both the voice of America and its embodiment. Through detailed research and vivid storytelling, Kaplan explores Whitman’s humble beginnings, his struggles as a writer, and his relentless ambition to create a new poetic identity for a rapidly changing nation. The book delves into the personal contradictions that make Whitman so fascinating: his celebration of individualism paired with a deep yearning for connection, his bold sensuality balanced by the demands of societal restraint, and his ambition to capture the universal while remaining fiercely personal.
Reading Walt Whitman: A Life made me see Leaves of Grass in a completely new light. Whitman wasn’t just writing poetry—he was crafting an identity, both for himself and for America. Kaplan shows us the Whitman who worked tirelessly to revise and expand his work, often at the expense of personal relationships. He paints a picture of a man who thrived on contradictions, embracing both the urban chaos of 19th-century New York and the quiet solitude of nature.
The book also helped me understand the historical context in which Whitman lived and wrote. Kaplan vividly depicts the tumultuous backdrop of the Civil War, industrialization, and shifting cultural norms that shaped Whitman’s poetry. It’s impossible to read Leaves of Grass the same way after seeing how Whitman poured his experiences—his encounters with soldiers, his admiration for Lincoln, his love for humanity—into his writing.
What I appreciated most about Kaplan’s biography is how it humanizes Whitman. He’s not just the “Good Gray Poet� or a towering literary figure; he’s a complex, flawed, and deeply passionate individual. By the end of the book, I felt like I understood Whitman not just as a poet, but as a person—someone who believed in the power of words to heal, unite, and transcend.
Walt Whitman: A Life isn’t light reading, but it’s worth the effort. It’s a beautifully written, deeply insightful exploration of one of America’s greatest poets. For anyone studying Whitman—or even just trying to understand how one person can capture the spirit of an entire nation—it’s an invaluable companion. For me, it transformed what might have been a routine assignment into a journey of discovery, both about Whitman and the enduring power of his work.
Kaplan’s biography is much more than a chronological account of Whitman’s life. It’s a rich, evocative portrait of a man who saw himself as both the voice of America and its embodiment. Through detailed research and vivid storytelling, Kaplan explores Whitman’s humble beginnings, his struggles as a writer, and his relentless ambition to create a new poetic identity for a rapidly changing nation. The book delves into the personal contradictions that make Whitman so fascinating: his celebration of individualism paired with a deep yearning for connection, his bold sensuality balanced by the demands of societal restraint, and his ambition to capture the universal while remaining fiercely personal.
Reading Walt Whitman: A Life made me see Leaves of Grass in a completely new light. Whitman wasn’t just writing poetry—he was crafting an identity, both for himself and for America. Kaplan shows us the Whitman who worked tirelessly to revise and expand his work, often at the expense of personal relationships. He paints a picture of a man who thrived on contradictions, embracing both the urban chaos of 19th-century New York and the quiet solitude of nature.
The book also helped me understand the historical context in which Whitman lived and wrote. Kaplan vividly depicts the tumultuous backdrop of the Civil War, industrialization, and shifting cultural norms that shaped Whitman’s poetry. It’s impossible to read Leaves of Grass the same way after seeing how Whitman poured his experiences—his encounters with soldiers, his admiration for Lincoln, his love for humanity—into his writing.
What I appreciated most about Kaplan’s biography is how it humanizes Whitman. He’s not just the “Good Gray Poet� or a towering literary figure; he’s a complex, flawed, and deeply passionate individual. By the end of the book, I felt like I understood Whitman not just as a poet, but as a person—someone who believed in the power of words to heal, unite, and transcend.
Walt Whitman: A Life isn’t light reading, but it’s worth the effort. It’s a beautifully written, deeply insightful exploration of one of America’s greatest poets. For anyone studying Whitman—or even just trying to understand how one person can capture the spirit of an entire nation—it’s an invaluable companion. For me, it transformed what might have been a routine assignment into a journey of discovery, both about Whitman and the enduring power of his work.
September 19, 2020
Terrific Biography of Whitman
Superb biography of America’s great poet, Walt Whitman. Not only is his life revealed but also there is a generous helping of references to his poetry with excellent analysis of the poet’s life and work. National Book Award winner. Highly recommended.
Superb biography of America’s great poet, Walt Whitman. Not only is his life revealed but also there is a generous helping of references to his poetry with excellent analysis of the poet’s life and work. National Book Award winner. Highly recommended.
July 27, 2024
Finished. A hard, authentic life.
June 12, 2014
Nineteenth-century America's androgynous bard
In his way, Walt Whitman just as boldly challenged the social and cultural customs of the United States of his era as Oscar Wilde did of his. Perhaps he was more circumspect in handling his private affairs. Perhaps the fact that he had no wife and children to neglect and made no mistake of having an affair with an upper class young man with a very powerful and vindictive parent and primarily wrote sensual yet universal poetry rather than prose narrative or was just as masculine and rugged looking as any man made a difference in the avoidance of having his entire existence blackballed. One can read his sensual, free-flowing, rhymeless poetry and see it as fitting very comfortably within the anthologies of 20th century poetry. He is seen as being very archetypically American and, like his contemporary Mark Twain and as authors such as Hemingway and Mailer in the next century, he is a shameless self-promoter. One example of this is in how he exploited Emerson's praise in a private letter by using it as a public tool in advertising more than one edition of his life work, the constantly evolving and expanding 'Leaves of Grass.'
Kaplan does not like to follow strict chronology with his biographies. His biography of Mark Twain began when MT was an adult and somewhat settled in a journalistic career. His first two chapters of Walt Whitman's bio thrust us immediately into the last years of Whitman's life, when he was old, mostly invalided and dependent on the physical and financial support of others. Whereas it was fitting to jump into Twain's adult life because his childhood and upbringing had been so thoroughly chronicled, Walt Whitman's later life begs for more background of his less well-known early life. Our images of Whitman as a bearded Santa Claus-like sage obscure our understanding of how he evolved into that role and I for one felt the need for sufficient gaps to be filled.
Once the gaps start to be filled, the biography builds a momentum. Nineteenth century Long Island and Brooklyn has been more of a mystery to me than the heavily chronicled New England or Twain's very detailed Missouri/Mississippi River and westward bound travels. Walt was the second of nine children. Due to economic necessity, he began working at age eleven, much like Sam Clemens as a printer's apprentice.
Whitman spent many years working as a printer and typesetter, teaching school, doing odd carpentry jobs, writing for newspapers, submitting tales and even a novel. Although he published a few poems anonymously from the time he was a teen, most of his published work until his thirties was prose. Much of the prose was written simply to make money. When he finally began to write from the heart and gathered his best poems for his first collection, he had to finance its publication and promotion himself. He lost money on the first printing of 'Leaves of Grass' although he gradually acquired more admirers and continued to add to it. Once he began to draw praise from eminent literary figures such as Emerson, Swinburne and Tennyson, his notoriety grew at a faster rate than his pocketbook.
Kaplan strikes a fairly even, objective, non-editorial tone throughout, portraying Whitman as a supporter of equal rights on one hand, yet someone who, although opposed to slavery, felt that blacks were mentally inferior and could not be trusted with the right to vote. Although notorious for his scandalous, sexual poetry, Whitman acquired the most acceptable mass popularity with his elegy to Abraham Lincoln, "Oh Captain! My Captain!" He experiences both sides of passionate, romantic obsession. He becomes fixated on one young, glaringly unliterary man, Pete Doyle, a railroad hand, then another, New Jersey farm boy Harry Stafford. In both instances, Whitman's heart was broken, less severely in the second, when he could take comfort in the fact that he was a cherished friend of Stafford's parents and resigned to an avuncular role to the object of his affection. On the other side of the spectrum, widowed British critic Anne Gilchrist, who had been so powerfully affected by her reading of 'Leaves of Grass' that she wrote one of the first extensive works of criticism on the book, became so entranced by the poet behind the work that she formed a passionate and very non-subtle romantic attachment to Whitman before she even met him. Whitman appreciated the admiration but could not reciprocate the intensity of the passion but only respond with guarded kindness and affection.
Whitman is depicted in this book as a very large personality, one who seemed aware of his unique talent and character from an early age. Before a critic could call him the poet of America or the voice of the people, he said it himself. Kaplan depicts Whitman's grandiose, many faceted life without the need to cite the quote that says almost all that needs to be said about the character of the man: 'Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.'
In his way, Walt Whitman just as boldly challenged the social and cultural customs of the United States of his era as Oscar Wilde did of his. Perhaps he was more circumspect in handling his private affairs. Perhaps the fact that he had no wife and children to neglect and made no mistake of having an affair with an upper class young man with a very powerful and vindictive parent and primarily wrote sensual yet universal poetry rather than prose narrative or was just as masculine and rugged looking as any man made a difference in the avoidance of having his entire existence blackballed. One can read his sensual, free-flowing, rhymeless poetry and see it as fitting very comfortably within the anthologies of 20th century poetry. He is seen as being very archetypically American and, like his contemporary Mark Twain and as authors such as Hemingway and Mailer in the next century, he is a shameless self-promoter. One example of this is in how he exploited Emerson's praise in a private letter by using it as a public tool in advertising more than one edition of his life work, the constantly evolving and expanding 'Leaves of Grass.'
Kaplan does not like to follow strict chronology with his biographies. His biography of Mark Twain began when MT was an adult and somewhat settled in a journalistic career. His first two chapters of Walt Whitman's bio thrust us immediately into the last years of Whitman's life, when he was old, mostly invalided and dependent on the physical and financial support of others. Whereas it was fitting to jump into Twain's adult life because his childhood and upbringing had been so thoroughly chronicled, Walt Whitman's later life begs for more background of his less well-known early life. Our images of Whitman as a bearded Santa Claus-like sage obscure our understanding of how he evolved into that role and I for one felt the need for sufficient gaps to be filled.
Once the gaps start to be filled, the biography builds a momentum. Nineteenth century Long Island and Brooklyn has been more of a mystery to me than the heavily chronicled New England or Twain's very detailed Missouri/Mississippi River and westward bound travels. Walt was the second of nine children. Due to economic necessity, he began working at age eleven, much like Sam Clemens as a printer's apprentice.
Whitman spent many years working as a printer and typesetter, teaching school, doing odd carpentry jobs, writing for newspapers, submitting tales and even a novel. Although he published a few poems anonymously from the time he was a teen, most of his published work until his thirties was prose. Much of the prose was written simply to make money. When he finally began to write from the heart and gathered his best poems for his first collection, he had to finance its publication and promotion himself. He lost money on the first printing of 'Leaves of Grass' although he gradually acquired more admirers and continued to add to it. Once he began to draw praise from eminent literary figures such as Emerson, Swinburne and Tennyson, his notoriety grew at a faster rate than his pocketbook.
Kaplan strikes a fairly even, objective, non-editorial tone throughout, portraying Whitman as a supporter of equal rights on one hand, yet someone who, although opposed to slavery, felt that blacks were mentally inferior and could not be trusted with the right to vote. Although notorious for his scandalous, sexual poetry, Whitman acquired the most acceptable mass popularity with his elegy to Abraham Lincoln, "Oh Captain! My Captain!" He experiences both sides of passionate, romantic obsession. He becomes fixated on one young, glaringly unliterary man, Pete Doyle, a railroad hand, then another, New Jersey farm boy Harry Stafford. In both instances, Whitman's heart was broken, less severely in the second, when he could take comfort in the fact that he was a cherished friend of Stafford's parents and resigned to an avuncular role to the object of his affection. On the other side of the spectrum, widowed British critic Anne Gilchrist, who had been so powerfully affected by her reading of 'Leaves of Grass' that she wrote one of the first extensive works of criticism on the book, became so entranced by the poet behind the work that she formed a passionate and very non-subtle romantic attachment to Whitman before she even met him. Whitman appreciated the admiration but could not reciprocate the intensity of the passion but only respond with guarded kindness and affection.
Whitman is depicted in this book as a very large personality, one who seemed aware of his unique talent and character from an early age. Before a critic could call him the poet of America or the voice of the people, he said it himself. Kaplan depicts Whitman's grandiose, many faceted life without the need to cite the quote that says almost all that needs to be said about the character of the man: 'Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.'
January 15, 2016
An overview of his life and work, it is written in a readable format. Somehow though it is not as compelling as whitman's poetry. On the other hand, I am glad I read it to get a sense of where his writing comes from.
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August 16, 2010Kaplan has the take on the man of Mickle Street.
March 29, 2014
My review is on my blog:
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