Author: Roger Asselineau Publisher: University of Iowa Press ISBN: 1609380339 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 816
Book Description
Now, nearly forty years after its original translation into English, Roger Asselineau's complete and magisterial biography of Walt Whitman will remind readers of the complex weave of traditions in Whitman scholarship. It is startling to recognize how much of our current understanding of Whitman was already articulated by Asselineau nearly half a century ago. Throughout its eight hundred pages, The Evolution of Walt Whitman speaks with authority on a vast range of topics that define both Whitman the man and Whitman the mythical personage. Remarkably, most of these discussions remain fresh and relevant, and that is in part because they have been so influential. In particular, The Evolution of Walt Whitman inaugurated the study of Leaves of Grass as a lifelong work in progress, and it marked the end of the habit of talking about Leaves as if it were a single unified book. Asselineau saw Whitman's poetry “not as a body of static data but as a constantly changing continuum whose evolution must be carefully observed.” Throughout Evolution, Asselineau placed himself in the role of the observer, analyzing Whitman's development with a kind of scientific detachment. But behind this objective persona burned the soul of a risk taker who was willing to rewrite Whitman studies by bravely proposing what was then a controversial biographical source for Whitman's art—his homosexual desires. The Evolution of Walt Whitman is a reminder that extraordinary works of criticism never exist in and of themselves. In this expanded edition, Roger Asselineau has provided a new essay summarizing his own continuing journey with Whitman. A foreword by Ed Folsom, editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly, regards Evolution as the genesis of contemporary Whitman studies.
Author: Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0192647784 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 721
Book Description
More than a century after his death, Walt Whitman remains a fresh phenomenon. Startling discoveries and massive transcription efforts are enabling new insights into his life and achievements. In the past few years new breakthroughs have proliferated, including the publication of a long-lost Whitman novel, Jack Engle, along with a hitherto unknown health guide for urban men and previously undiscovered poems. Myriad other documents have become more readily available, including largely unmined troves of journalism, narrative and documentary prose, and experimental note-keeping. Leaves of Grass and Whitman's literary life as a whole are thus ripe for reconsideration. The Oxford Handbook of Walt Whitman embraces this expanded view of Whitman and charts new pathways in Whitman Studies by bringing in new perspectives, methods, and contexts.
Author: Matt Cohen Publisher: University of Iowa Press ISBN: 1609384768 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 289
Book Description
The American ninteenth century witnessed a media explosion unprecedented in human history, and Walt Whitman's poetry reveled in the potentials of his time: "See, the many-cylinder'd steam printing-press, " he wrote. "See, the electric telegraph, stretching across the Continent, from the Western Sea to Manhattan." Still, as the budding poet learned, books neither sell themselves nor move themselves: without an efficient set of connections to get books to readers, the democratic, media-saturated future that Whitman imagined would have remained warehoused. Whitman's works sometimes ran through the "many-cylinder'd steam printing-press" and were carried in bulk on "the strong and quick locomotive." Yet during his career, his publications did not follow a progressive path toward mass production and distribution. Whitman's Drift asks how the many options for distributing books and newspapers shaped the way writers wrote and readers read. Studying nineteenth-century literature and how it circulated can help us understand not just how to read Whitman's works and times, but how to understand what is happening to our imaginations now, in the midst of the twenty-first century media explosion. -- from back cover.
Author: J.R. LeMaster Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1136700706 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 884
Book Description
The Routledge Encyclopedia of Walt Whitman presents a comprehensive resource complied by over 200 internationally recognized contributors, including such leading Whitman scholars as James E. Miller, Jr., Roger Asselineau, Betsy Erkkila, and Joel Myerson. Now available for the first time in paperback, this volume comprises more than 750 entries arranged in convenient alphabetical format. Coverage includes: biographical information: all names, dates, places, and events important to understanding Whitman's life and careerWhitman's works: essays on all eight editions of Leaves of Grass, major poems and poem clusters, principal essays and prose works, as well as his more than two dozen short stories and the novel, Franklin Evansprominent themes and concepts: essays on such major topics as democracy, slavery, the Civil War, immortality, sexuality, and the women's rights movement.significant forms and techniques: such as prosody, symbolism, free verse, and humourimportant trends and critical approaches in Whitman studies: including new historicist and cultural criticism, psychological explorations, and controversial issues of sexual identitysurveys of Whitman's international impact as well as an assessment of his literary legacy. Useful for students, researchers, librarians, teachers, and Whitman devotees, this volume features extensive cross-references, numerous photographs of the poet, a chronology, a special appendix section tracking the poet's genealogy, and a thorough index. Each entry includes a bibliography for further study.
Author: Roger Asselineau
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Author: Matt Cohen
Author: Albert L. Rabinovitz
Author: Walt Whitman
Author: Library of Congress. Copyright Office
Author: Library of Congress
Author: J.R. LeMaster
Author: Library of Congress. Copyright Office
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