Some interesting facts about Walt Whitman
I’m not a Whitman fan (no, that’s not one of the interesting facts), although I like some of his poems. But looking at his Wiki entry I noticed the following items, which somehow seemed worth mentioning:
When Whitman was 6 years old “he was lifted in the air and kissed on the cheek by the Marquis de Lafayette during a celebration in Brooklyn.”
Whitman’s formal schooling ended at the age of 11.
The first edition of Leaves of Grass was self-published, although it had this nifty engraving as the frontpiece:
Whitman was in his mid-thirties at the time, but he kept on revising Leaves of Grass as long as he lived.
Whitman worked at the US Attorney General’s office in DC right after the Civil War, where his job was “interviewing former Confederate soldiers for Presidential pardons.”
In 1871 “it was mistakenly reported that [Whitman had] died in a railroad accident.” He hadn’t.
In 1872 he gave the commencement speech at Dartmouth.
He lived at his brother’s house in Cambden, NJ, for about a decade after that, and it was there that he received a visit from Oscar Wilde.
People claim he was gay. People claim he was bisexual. He claimed he had 6 illegitimate children. No one really has a clue what his actual sexual history was, although I assume that he knew.
In what year did he make those candy samplers?
[hee hee]
“Whitman was in his mid-thirties at the time, but he kept on revising Leaves of Grass as long as he lived.”
And yet the first edition of 1855 remains the best.
Very Zen in the way of
“First thought,
Best thought.”
http://img20.photobucket.com/albums/v60/profmadhatter/nguyen1.jpg
“Peter, please see me” at the end of this one page essay. Gives me tears when I read it, every time.
That engraving. Dude! what a handsome, charasmatic figure. No wonder he celebrated himself.
I meant charismatic.
In his day, I suspect that if he were gay or bi he wouldn’t exactly advertise, uhrm, not to the general public. Especially when living with a brother. Just due to odds, both of them probably wouldn’t have been gay, and the straight one would have had real… issues with gay crap invading his world. Today it isn’t even a problem, especially by those who can live wherever they want. Heck, if I were gay, I’d just move to some gaytown. Don’t even have to go to L.A. or NYC, almost any college town will do you for.
As to having six kids, that means very little. Lots of guys who have or have had questions about identity or orientation spit out a large handful of rugrats. One of the most prolific men I have heard of was a French noble, perhaps a second prince. Trained to dress femininely, averse to war, and brought up that way in hopes of keeping him from eventually warring with his brother. Looked but couldn’t find. I think he… overdid the father thing to compensate. But he did a bang up job of it. :p (Looked, couldn’t find the article.)
Artful and Wry Mouth – – it is wonderful to start the day laughing like this. TY
That particular engraving was poorly received at the time !
Read a critique where there were complaints about
*the rakish hat & the sensuous lips & mouth*
Oh, oh !
He looks like Alan Rickman (as Hans Gruber).
Robin William’s performance and case for ‘Uncle Walt’ as teacher John Keating in “Dead Poets Society” aside – I can’t say I’m a Whitman admirer either.
There ought to be a club for us, I think. So, why does it exist?
Doing a quick google, I realize that German Idealist philosophy saturated much thinking og the nineteenth century.
Emerson, for example. But he found it balanced by practical American insight and a bit of Eastern mysticism.
Similarly, H L Mencken finds a sounder, more palatable and pleasing balance. For example, Menchen clearly admires Nietzsche – but this doesn’t send him hurtling towards Nazi-ism.
Whitman is simply too fey for me – too ‘full of it’ with German mysticism dressed up as sensible, fleshy and romantic.
http://www.whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/leaves1860/anc.00041.html
This seems to me an error that neither the British romantic poets nor Victorian greats fall victim to. I enjoy reading and re-reading both since college. (In fact, I took the survey course on them TWICE – with different profs, enjoying it both times.)
Perhaps it is the study of classical languages and literature so evident in these poets that Whitman lacked? (I’m guessing at the moment.) Something to give them heft, gravitas, and discipline – instead of undue self-indulgence.
I believe it was Whitman whose casual greeting was:
“What has become clear to you since last we met?”
Always liked that.