Long before he was a celebrated poet, Walt Whitman was a working journalist. By the time he published the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855, Whitman had edited three newspapers and published thousands of reviews, editorials, and human-interest stories in newspapers in and around New York City. Yet for decades, much of his journalism has been difficult to access or even find. For the first time, Walt Whitman鈥檚 Selected Journalism thematically and chronologically organizes a compelling selection of Whitman鈥檚 journalism from the late 1830s to the Civil War. It includes writings from the poet鈥檚 first immersion into the burgeoning democratic culture of antebellum America to the war that transformed both the poet and the nation.
Walt Whitman鈥檚 Selected Journalism covers Whitman鈥檚 early years as a part-time editorialist and ambivalent schoolteacher between 1838 and 1841. After 1841, it follows his work as a dedicated full-time newspaperman and editor, most prominently at the New York Aurora and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle between 1842 and 1848. After 1848 and up to the Civil War, Whitman鈥檚 journalism shows his slow transformation from daily newspaper editor to poet. This volume gathers journalism from throughout these early years in his career, focusing on reporting, reviews, and editorials on politics and democratic culture, the arts, and the social debates of his day. It also includes some of Whitman鈥檚 best early reportage, in the form of the short, personal pieces he wrote that aimed to give his readers a sense of immediacy of experience as he guided them through various aspects of daily life in America鈥檚 largest metropolis.
Over time, journalism鈥檚 limitations pushed Whitman to seek another medium to capture and describe the world and the experience of America with words. In this light, today鈥檚 readers of Whitman are doubly indebted to his career in journalism. In presenting Whitman-the-journalist in his own words here, and with useful context and annotations by renowned scholars, Walt Whitman鈥檚 Selected Journalism illuminates for readers the future poet鈥檚 earliest attempts to speak on behalf of and to the entire American republic.
鈥淭his generous selection of Whitman鈥檚 journalism could well be called 鈥榃hitman鈥檚 Foreground,鈥 echoing Ralph Waldo Emerson鈥檚 so very astute observation in 1855 that Leaves of Grass 鈥榤ust have had a long foreground, for such a start.鈥 Well, that foreground was mainly this journalism in which the emerging poet of the 1840s and early 1850s absorbed the America he so loved鈥攊ts throbbing cities, its colorful vernacular, its raging politics, and, later, the agony of its Civil War. It鈥檚 all here.鈥濃擩erome Loving, author, Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself
鈥淣overr and Stacy鈥檚 unrivalled knowledge of Whitman鈥檚 journalism has allowed them not only to select judiciously from established printed scholarly sources, but also to avail themselves of the more recent work done by scholars to identify probable new instances of Whitman鈥檚 journalistic output. Whitman鈥檚 journalism needs and deserves to be better known, as it provides an index to his thinking, serves at times as a kind of 鈥榯hink tank鈥 and trial ground for his (largely subsequent) poetry, offers us a glimpse into his workaday world, and is also highly readable.鈥濃擬. Wynn Thomas, author, Transatlantic Connections: Whitman US-UK
