Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography

In his poetry Walt Whitman set out to encompass all of America and in so doing heal its deepening divisions. This magisterial biography demonstrates the epic scale of his achievement, as well as the dreams and anxieties that impelled it, for it places the poet securely within the political and cultural context of his age.

Combing through the full range of Whitman's writing, David Reynolds shows how Whitman gathered inspiration from every stratum of nineteenth-century American life: the convulsions of slavery and depression; the raffish dandyism of the Bowery “b'hoys”; the exuberant rhetoric of actors, orators, and divines. We see how Whitman reconciled his own sexuality with contemporary social mores and how his energetic courtship of the public presaged the vogues of advertising and celebrity. Brilliantly researched, captivatingly told, Walt Whitman's America is a triumphant work of scholarship that breathes new life into the biographical genre.

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Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography

In his poetry Walt Whitman set out to encompass all of America and in so doing heal its deepening divisions. This magisterial biography demonstrates the epic scale of his achievement, as well as the dreams and anxieties that impelled it, for it places the poet securely within the political and cultural context of his age.

Combing through the full range of Whitman's writing, David Reynolds shows how Whitman gathered inspiration from every stratum of nineteenth-century American life: the convulsions of slavery and depression; the raffish dandyism of the Bowery “b'hoys”; the exuberant rhetoric of actors, orators, and divines. We see how Whitman reconciled his own sexuality with contemporary social mores and how his energetic courtship of the public presaged the vogues of advertising and celebrity. Brilliantly researched, captivatingly told, Walt Whitman's America is a triumphant work of scholarship that breathes new life into the biographical genre.

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Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography

Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography

by David S. Reynolds

Narrated by John Lescault

Unabridged — 28 hours, 47 minutes

Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography

Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography

by David S. Reynolds

Narrated by John Lescault

Unabridged — 28 hours, 47 minutes

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Overview

In his poetry Walt Whitman set out to encompass all of America and in so doing heal its deepening divisions. This magisterial biography demonstrates the epic scale of his achievement, as well as the dreams and anxieties that impelled it, for it places the poet securely within the political and cultural context of his age.

Combing through the full range of Whitman's writing, David Reynolds shows how Whitman gathered inspiration from every stratum of nineteenth-century American life: the convulsions of slavery and depression; the raffish dandyism of the Bowery “b'hoys”; the exuberant rhetoric of actors, orators, and divines. We see how Whitman reconciled his own sexuality with contemporary social mores and how his energetic courtship of the public presaged the vogues of advertising and celebrity. Brilliantly researched, captivatingly told, Walt Whitman's America is a triumphant work of scholarship that breathes new life into the biographical genre.


Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Literary historian Reynolds's biography of Whitman examines the poet within the broader social and cultural context of 19th-century America. (Mar.)

Library Journal

Whitman, the Good Gray Poet, was born into a time when slavery and the new market economy had just begun to transform the nation. Reynolds (Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville, LJ 4/15/88) endeavors to be "historically correct rather than politically correct" in examining this period and its players, and he succeeds. Weaving together primary and secondary historical sources, he reveals the diverse influences on the poet of politics, society, literary and cultural trends, science, and religion. Whitman's complex views on race and slavery, his "omnisexuality," and his conflict between conservatism and radicalism, for example, are better understood in this complete context. Whether as journalist, sensationalist, fiction writer, or poet, Whitman comes across as "a writer for all times," focusing on the pulse of the nation and socially significant causes that span centuries: prison reform, women's rights, democracy, and individualism. A highly readable, well-researched cultural history of the period. [BOMC selection.]-Cathy Sabol, Northern Virginia Community Coll., Manassas

From the Publisher

"Remarkably informative...I marked on page after page things about Whitman and his America I never knew before."
—Alfred Kazin, The New York Times Book Review

"Exhaustive...fascinating...an evocative portrait."
Washington Post Book World

"Reynolds stands alone in showing, almost day by day, the finest roots of Whitman's genius...His scholarship lights Whitman from within."
Philadelphia Inquirer

Product Details

BN ID: 2940177731124
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date: 01/28/2020
Edition description: Unabridged
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