Whitman's Southern Sojourn: Rediscovering the Poet in New Orleans, 1848

by Stefan Schöberlein, Zachary Turpin

Walt Whitman’s 1848 stint in New Orleans was a crucial moment of development for the poet. Working for The Daily Crescent, a new local newspaper, Whitman spent his days strolling through the multiracial city and turning his impressions into prose sketches, news items, and fiery editorials. While in the southern metropolis, the young journalist brushed shoulders with American soldiers returning from Mexico, cheered on European revolutions in the French Quarter, and explored raunchy performances at the St. Charles Theatre. Yet 1848 was also the year Whitman began lobbying for “Free Soil,” after encountering in New Orleans, Creole citizens, enslaved Black people, and the slaveholder who would become America’s next president.

Far from some brief escape, New Orleans was a significant milestone in Whitman’s development as a political firebrand, as well as a major step for a professional journalist on the rise. Through a wealth of new texts, contexts, and personalities, Stefan Schöberlein and Zachary Turpin paint a vivid picture of a writer on the verge of Leaves of Grass, embracing the contradictions and the multitudes of New Orleans.
 

284 pages, Paperback

Published December 16, 2025

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very dense but readable book about Walt Whitman and a trip he took to New Orleans with his brother in 1848. I knew Whitman was a journalist before finding success with his poetry but I didn’t know how impactful his trip to the south would be on his character, his politics, and his writing. In fact the authors state at one point : ‘What would it mean then, to think of Whitman not as merely a poet who got his start in journalism, but as a life-long journalist who also wrote poetry?’

A fascinating fact is that more people read Whitman’s work in a New Orleans daily than ever touched his first edition of Leaves during his lifetime. There was a lot written in New Orleans and still about the south after he returned to New York, but it’s fair to say that Whitman was not universally liked.

When Whitman resigned from a post, a competitor wrote:- ‘yet the tone of his mind and morals is too low to sustain a respectable journal. He lacks, besides, the industry and tact so necessary to the conduct of a political paper; and is more gifted in alienating friends than in making them.’ Ouch…

A good read but not an easy one. I took a while to get through this but I learned a lot. Certainly recommended if you’re a Whitman fan.

I was given a copy of the book by NetGalley

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This scholarly but largely accessible and readable book explores the period in Walt Whitman’s life when, in 1848, he spent time in New Orleans, where he developed his writing, skills as an editor and his political thinking, all of which were so crucial to his future literary career, as the author clearly demonstrates. The book is meticulously researched and very detailed and explores not only Whitman’s experience but places it in the wider historical, cultural and political context. It’s quite a dense read and I sometimes found it somewhat overwhelming in its detail, but overall it’s balanced, nuanced and provides essential background to anyone interested in Whitman’s life and work.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whitman's Southern Sojourn: Rediscovering the Poet in New Orleans, 1848 (Iowa Whitman Series)
by Stefan Schöberlein
This book shows the timeline of the strange adventure of the New York writer and his brother to New Orleans. How the events shaped his stories, and change his perception of life.