Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Leaves of Grass: The First Edition by Walt Whitman is our Old School Classic Group Read for May 2024.

This is the No Spoiler Thread
The Spoiler Thread will open on the 1st.

This early posting of the No Spoiler thread is to discuss any non-plot issues pertaining to the book.

Appropriate Posts can contain:
1. Information about the author.
2. Compare editions/translations.
3. Any historical or background information
4. Are you familiar with this author’s work? Do you have any expectations going into the book?
5. What made you decide to read this book?
6. Any fan fiction that you have read or would like to read? Just link the books.
7. If you loved the book and want others to share in that experience, use this thread to motivate others, again save plot specifics for the Spoiler thread
8. If you hated the book, it would be best to keep that for the spoiler page

The most important thing to remember is no plot discussion. Any post that contains plot information or spoilers will be deleted.

Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing, rewriting, and expanding Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892. Six or nine individual editions of Leaves of Grass were produced, depending on how they are distinguished. This resulted in vastly different editions over four decades. The first edition was a small book of twelve poems, and the last was a compilation of over 400.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_...

You can read online from the Walt Whitman Archive:
https://whitmanarchive.org/published-...

Whitman Making Books; Books Making Whitman. a Catalog and Commentary by Ed Folsom is suggested as an introduction to Whitman as a writer and producer of books.

Thank you, Katy. I did select the First Edition Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition because it was very specifically nominated by Sam. "Leaves of Grass was continuously edited and rereleased in Whitman's lifetime. The edition I am proposing is the first, before the many emendations, to get that sense of the originality of this book of poems. It is readily available in many editions, collections, and online but it is only the 1855 edition I am nominating."

I own a full edition and many might wish to expand the read to include more than the original poems, but the nomination was for the original poems only.

Sara wrote: "Thank you, Katy. I did select the First Edition Leaves of Grass: The First (1855) Edition because it was very specifically nominated by Sam. "Leaves of Grass was continuously edited a..."

Thank you Sara. Yes, my nomination was specifically for the first edition which of itself will prove to be plenty of reading for the month. The different versions are quite different and I was hoping that everyone could experience this classic as it was originally published, and especially before Whitman's reputation first became established in hope that we could recognize what makes Whitman great for ourselves.
Whitman as a whole can be a life long endeavor. There is a lot of material by him and about him and by limiting ourselves to the first edition we are going to get a taste of it. I am also hoping that we get to explore some outside sources as there are wonderful internet sources, books, and videos out there. Katy already mentioned The Whitman archive, an excellent source for many things to do with Whitman including reproductions of his notebooks and works:
https://whitmanarchive.org/
As we go along I, and hopefully others, will recommend works and such to go along with the read. As an example, I want to link a snippet of Whitman's own reading of a later work just to give a sense of his rhythm. Poetry is meant to be spoken. It may be a task to read all of this book out loud, but I suggest you try some of it and perhaps listen to some audio while you read. Here is the link to Whitman reading out loud from 1892:

https://whitmanarchive.org/media/audi...

And here is some text by Ed Folsom explaining the origins of the recording:
https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/wwqr/artic...

I will be linking the outside books I intend to read in addition to Leaves of Grass.

I have had a revisit of Leaves of Grass on my mind for quite a while, Sam. I read and studied it completely in a very intense course back in college, but have only visited it in snippets since then. I hope I can participate, but I am in the middle of a move, so maybe not. At any rate, I will enjoy following the discussion. He is an important part of our history, and too often the only poem of his people recognize is "O Captain, My Captain."

Sara wrote: "I have had a revisit of Leaves of Grass on my mind for quite a while, Sam. I read and studied it completely in a very intense course back in college, but have only visited it in snippets since then..."

Since you have had a class, your presence is requested for guidance, encouragement, and fact-checking!! I have never had a class on Whitman and am far from an authority so we will need all the help we can get. I hope the book generates some discussion. Whitman can be a challenge because when we read him now people sometimes can't see what the fuss is about, forgetting how much his influence has permeated our culture from poetry to our definition of America and democracy itself. So please stop in when you can even if you don't reread and share some thoughts.

The class was many, many years ago, but I sincerely hope to stop in and learn from you all. If I have anything of value in the grey matter, I will gladly share. I always know the discussion will be worthwhile when you are a part of it, Sam.

In case you get a copy of a longer edition but want to read the poems of the first edition:
The 1st edition had 12 “poems”: I Sing the Body Electric, Song of Myself, A Song for Occupations, To Think of Time, The Sleepers, Faces,
Song of the Answerer, Europe the 72nd..., A Boston Ballad, There was a Child Went Forth, Who Learns my Lesson Complete, Great are the Myths.

Fans of Ray Bradbury will probably remember his book of stories titled "I Sing the Body Electric" named after the Whitman poem. I just read that one and liked it.

Thank you for the list of poems found in the original edition. I have a collection so the list will make reading those easier.

I found the website Course Hero to have some very good material on Whitman and Leaves of Grass. Type "course hero leaves of grass" in your browser and scroll down to the poem you're interested in. Russell Jaffe has a short (3.5 min) youtube video on Song of Myself that I liked.
"Song of myself" is about half of the first edition according to google gemini. I decided to leave that for last and get used to his style with the shorter pieces- I've read seven of the eleven now.

I mentioned the Bradbury book with the title of a Whitman poem in my earlier post. Now I've also noticed "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" which title was used by Willa Cather for her novel "O Pioneers!" and there's also "A Passage to India" which E M Forster used as the title of one of his most famous novels. It seems that many writers have read some Whitman.

The books I will be using as secondary sources:

The Solitary Singer: A Critical Biography of Walt Whitman Gay Wilson Allen

Whitman: An Interpretation in Narrative Emory Holloway

Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography David S. Reynolds

Collage of Myself: Walt Whitman and the Making of Leaves of Grass Matt Miller


The Modern Scholar - Walt Whitman and the Birth of Modern American Poetry Karen Karbiener These are audio CD lectures.

Two other sources for information. The first is an online video course that may be helpful and the second is an online version of the poem and commentary from Whitman Web.

https://iwp.uiowa.edu/iwp-courses/dis...

https://iwp.uiowa.edu/whitmanweb/en/w...