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The visitor to Walt Whitman carried a copy of “Leaves of Grass” to validate himself. It reminded me of carrying Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” 1939

Slow going, but good.

His cleanliness of his body and health and his freedom of convention were both remarked upon.

Whitman had no quarrel with the world. He died poor.

Camden is separated from Philadelphia by a river.

He never came under the ennobling influence of a woman.

John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle so far.

William Gladstone ("Glad-stun").

So far so good. Author appears to expect a certain amount of knowledge about the subject on the part of the reader, and instead just gives some brief vignettes.