WALT WHITMAN IBD

Sinopse

Walt Whitman: A Literary Lifeáhighlights two major influences on WhitmanâÇÖs poetry and life: the American Civil War and his economic condition. Linda Wagner-Martin performs a close reading of many of WhitmanâÇÖs poems, particularly his Civil War work (in Drum-Taps) and those poems written during the last twenty years of his life. Wagner-MartinâÇÖs study also emphasizes the near-poverty that Whitman experienced. Starting with his early career as a printer and journalist, the book moves to the publication ofáLeaves of Grass, and his cultivation of the persona of the 'working-class' writer. In addition to establishing WhitmanâÇÖs attention to the Civil War through journalism and memoirs, the book takes the approach of following WhitmanâÇÖs life through his poems. Utilizing contemporary perspectives on class, Wagner-Martin provides a new reading of WhitmanâÇÖs economic situation. This is an accessibly written synthesis of WhitmanâÇÖs publication history bringing attention to under-studied aspects of his writing.