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Seance at Scanlon’s?

And guess who followed ME home? […]

O Lincoln, My Lincoln

Here is a more focused set of my photos from Digital Whitman’s DC visit, which we made two days before discussing Whitman’s Lincoln writings/lecture in class. When we went into the actual theater (or, in some of my students’ cases, the napping room–shame on you!), I was disappointed at first that the guard ushered me upstairs […] […]

Favorite Manuscript Moment

I am indebted to Other Sam for drawing my attention to this very moving detail. One of the best things I saw at the Library of Congress was Whitman’s letter of December 29, 1862 (that is, exactly 106 years before the day I was born), to his mother about finding George in Fredericksburg. We were […] […]

Free tickets to Ford’s Theater for 19 people through Ticketmaster plus $2.00 access fee? $49.50. Thirteen hours of parking for three vehicles? $30.00. Bodily presence? Priceless.

Immediacy is something the Reverend talks about as a benefit of the blog, social networking technologies, and the great digital experiment that is Looking for Whitman. Presence. Accessibility. These are words we use a lot. So this week a question has been dogging me while I process Digital Whitman’s Saturday field trip to Washington City. […] […]

Saturday, October 24, Washington City: Some Info

Whitmaniacs, A few notes for Saturday (check for updates!): 1. Carpool rendez-vous: Jefferson Circle behind Combs at 9:00 a.m. 2. Parking in DC: 1201 F St. NW, 20005 Take 95 North to 395 North (follow signs from 95 for 395/495/Washington/Tysons) On 395, take 12th Street exit toward L’Enfant Promenade 12th Street (follow slight left at 11th St SW/12th street tunnel) Left onto […] […]

Under My Bootsoles Everywhere

I was reading in yesterday’s Washington Post in a piece called “Beyond ‘Great,’ to Exemplary” that Whitman’s “O Captain!” is one of about five works identified by the National Standards Initiative as it tries to give guidance to high school teachers about what students should know– with Austen, Morrison, and a few others, it was […] […]

Seeing the United States Civil War Style

Here is a clear, color-coded map from wikimedia commons that shows the US as Whitman knew it: seceeding states, Union states with slavery, Union states without slavery, territories. And here is one that shows the same, but in a more traditional cartography: […]

For Brooklyn

Hi CUNY Whitman scholars, Here at UMW we’ve been finding poems that mention or respond to Whitman. This poem doesn’t do so directly, but it focuses on a love of Brooklyn that may resonate with your readings now: “On Leaving Brooklyn” after Psalm 137 If I forget thee let my tongue forget the songs it sang in this strange land and […] […]

Finding Whitman in Charlottesville

Hey Whitmaniacs, here’s a shiver-inducer: Today I was in C’ville for an appointment and when it was done, my traveling companion Professor Emerson and I decided to stretch our legs on the grounds of our alma mater. Professor Emerson has a friend who works in the new rare book facility, which I had not seen, and […] […]

Whitman in Maryland

I came across this story and video (do NOT skip the video, which features the poem “Beat! Beat! Drums!”, t-shirts with Whitman in slouch hat, a bad rendition of “I Kissed a Girl,” people spouting such hate it will give you shivers, and the weirdest dancing religious prostester I’ve seen in a long time) about […] […]

A Few Words from the Elders (READ THIS)

Hey Whitmaniacs, This post is really a series of reminders and guidelines. Boring (and overwhelming? I’m trying), but read on: Don’t forget to log on to your own individual blog and post from there rather than posting directly on the Digital Whitman blog, which is creating problems for some folks. Dr. Earnhart has confirmed the start time for […] […]

March 1863: Lacy House (Chatham)

This is the home where Whitman found his brother George in December 1862 in the makeshift Union hospital, and spent a week visiting with soldiers before traveling to DC to begin his serious work as a spiritual missionary to the wounded. This image and the one below of Marye House (Brompton) are courtesy of a […] […]

What to Walt Whitman is the Fourth of July? A Belated Catalogue

This summer has found me thinking a lot more about the basic concept of our course: Whitman and place. “Place” to me is emerging not just as the streets of Fredericksburg and DC, though that is powerful, but also as a place in time or history–where is Whitman now, here? My ideas about it are […] […]

American Nutshell

For me, the real highlights of our Camden trip were of course the graveyard and house visits. What I can’t shake about the house on what used to be Mickle Street is the juxtaposition of signifiers: home of Walt Whitman, inspired, experimental communicator, Civil War nurse, poet-philosopher of democracy and national optimist + the broadened, […] […]