Customer Reviews

Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose (Library of America)

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I picked up this book in the Spring of 1990 while browsing in a bookstore. I'm no student of poetry, in fact I only purchased it because I randomly flipped it open and was enamored with the passage I found. I learned that the passage is from "Song of Myself" and have read both that epic poem and the entire collection through dozens of times.

I didn't know exactly what I had purchased that day. But over time find that turning to Whitman's poetry and prose has been a source of comfort. I find myself in his writings, and find that his messages apply clearly in the present day. This volume is a pretty hefty way to start with Whitman--you get everything from the start. If you choose to buy it, I suggest randomly exploring it--stopping here and there to read a poem. I spent weeks exploring that way, only later did I read everything from start to finish. The simplicity of the writing and the clarity of meaning is remarkable.

The Library of America edition is--in itself--beautiful. Well bound, fine paper, still in excellent condition after 15 years of use. When reading it, it is impossible not to appreciate the caliber of it's manufacture: the choice of paper, inks, typefaces, binding, etc. contribute to pleasurable experience. I have a small number of other Library of America volumes, and each is exquisitely assembled and a joy to read. They are not inexpensive, but I'd argue that they are most definitely worth every penny.

Leaving aside, for the moment, a review of Whitman's writing itself, let me say that this edition (by the Library of America series) is the best one out there. I've been hard pressed to find works of Whitman that aren't included in this volume: it has both the 1855 and 1892 editions of Leaves of Grass, complete, and virtually all of his prose. It even includes several important pieces that Whitman didn't add to the final edition of his works during his lifetime.

Add to that the fact that these books are well made and wear well with time, and it's definitely worth the slightly higher price (especially with the amazon discount!).

Having said that - Whitman's poetry is of course wonderful, and his prose is just as great. A lot of people know about Leaves of Grass...how many, I wonder, have taken the time to read _Specimen Days_ and find out just how great of a writer Whitman really is? This volume is heartily reccomended to give you a great all-around picture of Whitman and his work. If you're coming to Whitman for the first time, a small paperback would probably be the better bet, but if you've gotten that far and want more, this is the only book you'll need.

trinity. My debt and appreciation has never diminished to this threesome. In fact, only increases.


The reason that I came across the Library of America series is that after many years of use, my copy of 'Leaves of Grass' was giving way to time. I was looking for a quality hardcover that I would not only use over and over again, but one that looked elegant on my book shelf.


I am completely happy with both the quality of the book: binding, cover, print, paper and compactness as well as the contents. There are volumes of Whitman's written words available, and are worth the owning, but this collection captures his essence, and should go a long way in keeping the lover of 'Leaves of Grass' happy and satisfied.

This is one of the books that I bought for college that has become a well read favorite and that I think of often.

I know that critics object to Whitman's sprawling epic poetry, but it truly captures the spirit of America. This great volume includes the first and last editions of Leaves of Grass. Whitman viewed his poetry collection as something that should grow and change with time. Also included is his memoirs that show the Civil War through the eyes of a northern nurse. This is truly a unique and insightful perspective. His Civil War sensitivity comes across most clearly in the senstitive "O Captain"

Whitman's poems capture the momentum of life. No other poem can touch "There was a child went forth" for capturing the spirit of childhood. All stages of life are brilliantly illustrated here.

Whitman's life spanned such a unique era of American history and one cannot study the nineteenth century without reading Whitman.

Beethoven killed classical style. It kind of ends with him. He was soooo good that he was impossible to follow. Others had to go in other directions.

But Whitman invents modern poetry. And with his Beethoven intensity and skill ought to have killed it, with his "Leaves of Grass". But poets are hardier than musicians, I suppose. You need a Whitman scale to rate poets. Really excellent gets a W0.5 (from 0 to 1). Like that.

But so does Whitman himself. His first real work was called "Leaves of Grass". His second was called "Leaves of Grass". His third, "Leaves of Grass"...

He kept improving his older stuff and adding on. It got bigger and bigger and bigger. Historically, you may want an older version. But this one is the mother load.

AND .... this is the big and .... it has the best preface of any book ever written. Period. No contest. He wrote this in his later years and the preface is a work of its own. Magnificent. This book makes me blue in that I could never rise to this level of speech and thought given infinite resources and tutoring. So it stands there like a continent. Explore it.

As the author of "Of Life Immense: The Prophetic Vision of Walt Whitman," I have many copies of "Leaves of Grass," along with many other books about Walt Whitman. The "Library of America Edition" is very well done, beautiful to read and wonderful to hold. Justin Kaplan"s commentary is insightful and his selection of Whitman's prose provides the reader with significant understanding of Whitman's life. If you have only one book by and about Walt Whitman, this may well be the book you should have.

Exuberant, sensual (without ever being pornographic), hedonistic, Whitman is one of a kind and truly American. It's difficult to explain why I enjoy Whitman's work so much. I guess it's because he is at peace with himself and enjoys people, life, and the American ideal so much! I read it and enjoyed Whitman in high school. Now, I read a little at a time taking in the words and the images his describes.

Steven B. Herrmann, PhD, MFT
Author of "Walt Whitman: Shamanism, Spiritual Democracy, and the World Soul"

I picked up this beautiful book in 1997 in a used bookstore in mint condition for half price and it was just what I was looking for. Before reading it, I had read "Song of Myself" and most of his major poems, some many times over, but having this little edition in my hands was a mind opener. There were so many pieces I loved and could write about in this review, yet I will limit myself to one: "Democratic Vistas," the tripartite prose essay which was written between the years 1856 and 1870, and which was to become his greatest prose statement about the relationship between Art and society and the role of the Poet in shaping world culture. "View'd today, from a point of view sufficiently over-arching" he wrote: "the problem of humanity all over the civilized world is social and religious and is to be finally met and treated by literature. The priest departs, the divine literatus comes. Never was anything more wanted then, to-day and here in the States, the poet of the modern is wanted, or the great literatus of the modern. At all times, perhaps, the central point in any nation, and that whence it is itself really sway'd the most, and whence it sways others, is its national literature, especially its archetypal poems" (932). When I read this I was amazed. The passage could almost have been written by a present day post-Jungian! Passages like this one show clearly that Whitman had achieved a union of opposites in the Self. At the center of Whitman's vision of democracy was his religious vision of universal brotherhood: "adhesiveness or love, that fuses, ties and aggregates, making the races comrades, and fraternizing all" (949). The "fruition of democracy" Whitman realized after the War, was to reside "altogether in the future" (956). It has sometimes been said that Whitman was too optimistic. But, when I read Poetry and Prose I saw another side of him altogether. In his notes on "Nationality," for instance, Whitman wrote: "I have myself little or no hope from what is technically called `Society' in our American cities" (1061). What he was interested in was "the important question of character, of an American stock-personality, with literatures and arts for outlets and return-expressions... common to all" (936). For Whitman, the growth of personalities was the only concern of any "real importance... the idea of that Something a man is... divine in his own right, and woman in hers, sole and untouchable by any canons of authority" (939, 941). As Whitman saw it, social transformation is a matter of individual responsibility, a moral and spiritual problem, which every person faces. Whitman believed that there had to be a provision in Democracy for "a little healthy rudeness, savage virtue, justification of what one has in one's self, whatever it is, is demanded" (961). Of all the books on my shelf, this is perhaps one of my favorites. A handsome hardback edition in green cloth, with very fine pages, it is a joy to turn the pages of and to read into the dark. This little book is a must for any lover of Whitman.

GREAT PRODUCT-LOVE IT-THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!
CHERYL

Excellent comparative collection of the earlier and later editions, plus Specimen Days and other prose by Whitman not available in one collection. The binding is the best and the pages will last for a looong time.