![]() ![]() ![]() Whitman’s words in the preface to the original edition are at least as radiant and rousing as the verses themselves - words that continue to enliven heart, mind, and spirit a century and a half later. Walt Whitman circa 1854 (Library of Congress) Leaves of Grass went on to become one of most beautiful and beloved poetic works ever written. Praising the book as brimming with “incomparable things said incomparably well,” Emerson buoyed Whitman’s spirit and soon sculpted public opinion into appreciation. Without Emerson’s emboldening missive, the young poet may have perished in obscurity. Whitman carried it in his pocket for a long time, proudly showing to friends and lovers, and eventually reprinted it in full in the second edition, on the spine of which a particularly vitalizing sentence from the letter - “I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career” - was stamped in gold. Amid its dispiriting initial reception, he received a soul-saving letter of encouragement from Emerson, who by that point had become America’s most influential literary tastemaker. ![]() Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819–March 26, 1892) was thirty-six when he self-published Leaves of Grass ( public library | public domain). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |