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Few authors are so well suited to historical study as Whitman, who is widely considered America's greatest poet. This Guide combines contemporary cultural studies and historical scholarship to illuminate Whitman's diverse contexts. The essays explore dimensions of Whitman's dynamic relationship to working-class politics, race and slavery, sexual mores, the visual arts, and the idea of democracy. The poet who emerges from this volume is no "solitary singer," distanced from his culture, but what he himself called "the age transfigured," fully enmeshed in his times and addressing issues that are still vital today.
Edited by David S. Reynolds, Distinguished Professor of American Literature, Baruch College
David S. Reynolds: Introduction David S. Reynolds: Capsule Biography Ed Folsom: Lucifer and Ethiopia: Whitman, Race, and Poetics before and after the Civil War Jerome Loving: The Political Roots of the First Leaves of Grass M. Jimmie Killingsworth: Whitman's "Calamus": A Rhetorical Prehistory of the Gay American Ethos Roberta K. Tarbell: Whitman and the Visual Arts Kennety Cmiel: To Be Free and Rule: Whitman on the Razor's Edge David S. Reynolds: Bibliographical Essay David S. Reynolds: Dual Chronology
