Comments on: “A Historical Guide to Walt Whitman” book review http://myepiphany.lookingforwhitman.org/2009/11/25/a-historical-guide-to-walt-whitman-book-review/ Walt Whitman @ UNS Fall 2009 Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:24:48 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.30 By: mscanlon http://myepiphany.lookingforwhitman.org/2009/11/25/a-historical-guide-to-walt-whitman-book-review/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:41:45 +0000 http://myepiphany.lookingforwhitman.org/?p=41#comment-9 Josip,
Thanks for this recommendation, which for some reason I realize I never made to my own class, though we discussed many of its topics. I know you submitted answers for my student Meghan who is researching Whitman’s current reception (thank you for doing that!! She will be very grateful) and one thing that interests her is whether readers turn to Leaves for its beauty (poetry) or its philosophy/politics– or both? Studies suggest that many early readers, led by American socialists who admired Whitman (including his interviewer Traubel), really saw him more as a philosopher, and studied his works to extract his vision of democracy, equality, the sacredness of all humanity, etc. Some poets in the modernist period were grappling with his poetic voice, long lines and free verse, etc., but many readers almost seemed to overlook the genre of his work. Much of this was born out in the recent survey I did of English-language journals from early in the 20th century:

http://mscanlon.lookingforwhitman.org/2009/11/17/a-whitman-sampler-in-the-age-of-modernism/

Thanks again for all your interesting work!

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