Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Without a conventional weapon, he fought his own war, August 2, 2000
While I am not a frequent reader of poetry, I am enamored with both History and Biography, and that is what drew my interest to "The Better Angel" by Mr. Roy Morris Jr. My knowledge of this Country's notable poets and their work is a void in my reading. Were there to be more books written in this manner it is a gap I believe that would be lessened.I did not expect to read Mr. Whitman's work to any extent as I thought this was a biography of a time period in the poet's life. Mr. Morris does indeed share a great deal about a familiar name in American Literature; he also selectively uses the work of Mr. Whitman, and finally places it all within the context of the deadliest war this Country has ever fought. Approximately 750,00 died in our Civil War. The numbers were so astronomically high due to the nature of the fighting, the ammunition used, and the medical profession's ignorance of even the most basic hygiene, infection, the inability to care for those wounded expeditiously, and the use of medicines that poisoned as often as they helped. Dysentery killed 100,000; one particularly virulent infection, Pyemia claimed 97.4% of those infected. Tetanus was also responsible for killing 89% of its victims. I take the space to mention these statistics, as this was the environment that Mr. Whitman made a major part of his life for years, and many consider this same commitment caused his lingering illnesses and finally his death. While it is true he introduced many to ice cream, brought with him countless small gifts, including a requested toothpick, his time and the comfort he gave to these soldiers made him a hero to thousands forever. All too many times his act was to sit with the dying so that they did not do so alone. He wrote countless letters for those too injured or unable to do so for themselves. He visited the families of some who had been slain. He was a man torn by his personal feelings about the war, the price it exacted, and what was bought. The man was very complex in his thoughts and the angst and contradiction he was forced to deal with. He had a Brother who fought for nearly the entire war, was for a time a prisoner but ultimately survived. He Family in New York included a Mother he loved, and a Brother who slipped into madness and violence as the disease that consumed him advanced. This is not a lengthy book, but it provides a well-written documentary on a portion of this famous man's life. It puts some of his work into the context from which it was created, and how the same circumstances so affected the poet. There was one facet of Mr. Whitman that was mentioned and associated so many times that it began to sound defensive. I suggest this part of the man need not be defended, as it did not add or subtract from his deeds, and while it certainly was part of his writing, his works were not the focus of this book. Long after Mr. Whitman died he lived on in the children grateful soldiers had named after him who lived from Syracuse New York to Kentucky, and one imagines many points between.
|
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Biography Lovingly Written-Superb!, March 31, 2001
This is a sensitively written biography covering in detail the life of America's greatest poet, Walt Whitman, during the Civil War years. This story of course has been told before, but never so completely, so lovingly. The author, Roy Morris, Jr. has done a superb job.The first chapter gives some background and tells of Whitman's despair, wasting his time, his life in New York's seedy underground bohemian world, especially Pfaff's beer cellar. At 41, Whitman had lost his job as editor of the Brooklyn Daily Times newspaper, and was in a depressing downward spiral, doing only sporadic hack work as a journalist. The Civil War had begun and his brother George had enlisted. When reports reached New York that George was wounded and in a Washington, DC hospital, Walt rushed to be by his brother's side. It was this event that brought Whitman face-to-face with the terrible wartime hospitals and to his beloved dying soldiers. This was the event that turned his life around, even perhaps saved his life as Whitman himself later reported. Finding that his brother's wounds were slight, Whitman began visiting the battlefield wounded. Here he almost by accident found his calling as the "Better Angel" of the book's title: helping the soldiers, or sometimes just listening and comforting his boys with small gifts and favors. Whitman clearly loved the young soldiers he watched die miserable deaths in the dreadful hospitals. The soldiers clearly loved him in return. This book is written with such sympathy that the reader can feel the love leap of the pages. Whitman was a prolific letter writer. Much of the story recounted here comes from letters he wrote, especially to his beloved mother. Also the seeds of much of Whitman's Civil War poetry are given here in forms different from the poems themselves, but Morris also includes extensive excerpts from the poems. The scientific advances in medicine (Pasteur, etc.) were still a few years away, so it was a dangerous thing to be spending so much time in these filthy, disease-ridden hospitals. Whitman regularly touched, embraced, even kissed his dying soldiers to comfort them, so it is almost a miracle he only became seriously ill one time from this contact. With all the sad death, this book is still uplifting and inspiring. Do buy it, read it, love it. After you have finished, you will want to get out your copy of "Leaves of Grass" and read the poems all over again with new insights and understandings. This is a lovely little book.
|
|
|
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Whitman: the poet and the man, in love and in war, May 31, 2004
Two of America's most famous nineteenth-century authors wrote enduring memorials about the soldiers of the Civil War--yet neither author fought alongside their colleagues. One, Louisa May Alcott, became known to the American public when she published "Hospital Sketches," about her experiences as a nurse in the typhoid-ridden hospitals of Washington. The second, Walt Whitman, incorporated his hospital experiences as background for a series of poems he eventually included in "Drum Taps." Roy Morris's brief and incisive account of Whitman's unofficial role as a nurse is fascinating not only for the history it contains but for the poetry it elucidates. Although Whitman himself never took up arms, he experienced the brunt of combat both first-hand, through his trips to the frontlines (to seek out his brother), and--more horrifically in many ways--through his kindly visits to wounded and dying soldiers. He patiently spent hours every day, volunteering wherever he was welcome, bringing gifts and sweets and writing letters home for the incapacitated. His vigils often lasted until the boys' deaths, and he would send emotional, plaintive letters to their parents. There can be no doubt that his attentions were appreciated; many veterans wrote to him for the rest of their lives, addressing him as "Father" or "Uncle," and several named their sons after him. Although most of his benevolence was altruistic, there can also be little doubt that a few of the relationships "seems to have exceeded mere wartime camaraderie," as Morris phrases it. Before he fell in love with the Confederate deserter Peter Doyle in 1865, Whitman formed intimate (though not necessarily sexual) associations with many of his patients. At their extremes, the aftermaths of these friendships left him desolate and jealous. In one instance, his pleading missives to the unresponsive Thomas Sawyer, a soldier who returned to the front, occasionally approached the shrillness of a spurned lover: "I don't know how you feel about it, but it is the wish of my heart to have your friendship, and also that if you should come safe out of this war, we should come together again in someplace where we could make our living, and be true comrades and never be separated while life lasts." And later, "I suppose my letter should sound strange & unusual to you as it is. . . I do not expect you to return for me the same degree of love I have for you." And later still: "I do not know why you do not write to me. Do you wish to shake me off? That I cannot believe." Yet, in addition to shining a light on Whitman the man (and, sadly, Whitman the racist), Morris's book provides a wonderful guide to Whitman the poet, showing how certain biographical incidents manifested themselves in the haunting lyrics of "Drum Taps" and in the blunt reminiscences recorded ten years later in "Memoranda during the War." By that time, Whitman had become disillusioned by the nation's ability to forget the sacrifices so many men made, on both sides, during the Civil War. Through his poetry and journals, however, the "Good Gray Poet" guaranteed that the souls of his "dear suffering boys" would never be forgotten.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Walter Lowenfels
by David S. Reynolds
by Justin Kaplan
by Walt Whitman
See all Editorial Reviews
