Customer Reviews

Walt Whitman: A Life

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When I was young, I was told that Walt Whitman was a marvelous poet. I read some

parts of Leaves of Grass but I was not impressed. Now, when I am old,I have

recently met a young poet who thinks highly of Whitman as the Father of

Modern American Poetry. Therefore, I decided to try him again.

I bought a copy of Leaves of Grass with an introduction by Justin Kaplan.

First I read Kaplan's introduction; then I read Leaves of Grass four times.

After the second reading, I finally 'got it'. Then I wanted to learn more

about Whitman so I sent for Kaplan's biography of Whitman.

I found this biography answered many questions I had about Whitman's life.

Kaplan's writing is very accessible and extremely informative. He cites

contemporary sources for facts about Whitman's life. I would recommend

this book highly to anyone who wants to know more about Walt Whitman.

(I just hope my review comes through cyberspace intact. This space keeps

cutting off the ends of words.)

There isn't much by way of analysis of the poems, but there is a trove of information about Whitman the poet and enigmatic man.

Appearing in 1980, a time when popular understanding of gay sensibilities and ways of being homosexual in straight American society were still sketchy, Kaplan adroitly and with admirable nuance addresses Whitman's sexual "otherness" and its impact on his friendships and literary art. I write this in 2011; Kaplan did his research when NY's Stonewall Riots were a recent memory, and the Village People an ironic musical act for sophisticates who got the joke. I doubt there were yet any "queer studies" programs in academia.

Whether Whitman was gay or bi-sexual, we should be careful to not read into his life the mores and assumptions of our time. To be clear, there was no niche for non-heterosexuals in America in the 1850s, when Leaves of Grass first gained public notoriety, and earned only a few critical raves.

Who in the mid-19th century literary establishment expected this?:

"The beards of the young men glisten'd with wet, it ran from their
long hair,
Little streams pass'd all over their bodies.

"An unseen hand also pass'd over their bodies,
It descended tremblingly from their temples and ribs."

Kaplan's account of Whitman struck me as that of a man who sought to be robustly physical and all-embracing of the world when puritanical restraint was the strict norm among the white protestant middle class. Whitman's poetic language of sexuality was candid and bracingly artistic; much of the rest of America cloaked sexuality in sentimentalism or dread.

Life in such a culture meant for Whitman the sublimation of his feelings and alternative expressive outlets. Kaplan's recounts the poet's summer "Adamic rituals" in his garden, stripping himself naked, rolling in the creekside mud, rinsing himself and scrubbing his body until his skin reddened - followed by another rinse and a frolic in the sun while chanting joyfully.

The strength of WWAL is Kaplan's ability to use language that compliments Whitman's own: expansive, bold, colorful - with carefully crafted judiciousness. Happily, there is very little speculation in this biography, a flaw of many biographies written in the later 20th century. The book especially brings home the culture of Civil War Washington and the shockingly high numbers of injured soldiers. Whitman served as a nurse and comforter to many who either recovered or died from their wounds.

If there is a flaw in this fine book, perhaps it is Kaplan's decision to open WWAL with 2 chapters that are the final years of Whitman's life -- THEN the biography begins chronologically with Chap. 3, running up to 1880, just after the poet turned 60. Perhaps Kaplan wants the reader to return to the first 2 chapters to deepen the understanding of his subject's life.

If you are unfamiliar with Whitman and want to know something of his life story before you venture into Leaves of Grass, Democratic Vistas or Specimen Days, start with this book. Winner of a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, it is a fine biographical introduction, here and there seasoned with sections of Whitman's poetry and prose, augmenting Kaplan's interpretive narrative. THEN acquire the Library of America's definitive collection of Whitman's poetry and prose, finely edited by none other than....Justin Kaplan.