The Evolution of Walt Whitman

by Asselineau, Roger; Folsom, Ed

• ISBN13: 9780877456827
• ISBN10: 0877456828
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of Iowa Pr

Summary

Now, nearly forty years after its original translation into English, Roger Asselineau's complete and magisterial biography of Walt Whitman will remind readers of the complex weave of traditions in Whitman scholarship. It is startling to recognize how much of our current understanding of Whitman was already articulated by Asselineau nearly half a century ago. Throughout its eight hundred pages,The Evolution of Walt Whitmanspeaks with authority on a vast range of topics that define both Whitman the man and Whitman the mythical personage. Remarkably, most of these discussions remain fresh and relevant, and that is in part because they have been so influential.In particular,The Evolution of Walt Whitmaninaugurated the study ofLeaves of Grassas a lifelong work in progress, and it marked the end of the habit of talking aboutLeavesas if it were a single unified book. Asselineau saw Whitman's poetry "not as a body of static data but as a constantly changing continuum whose evolution must be carefully observed." ThroughoutEvolution,Asselineau placed himself in the role of the observer, analyzing Whitman's development with a kind of scientific detachment. But behind this objective persona burned the soul of a risk taker who was willing to rewrite Whitman studies by bravely proposing what was then a controversial biographical source for Whitman's art-his homosexual desires.The Evolution of Walt Whitmanis a reminder that extraordinary works of criticism never exist in and of themselves. In this expanded edition, Roger Asselineau has provided a new essay summarizing his own continuing journey with Whitman. A foreword by Ed Folsom, editor of theWalt Whitman Quarterly,regardsEvolutionas the genesis of contemporary Whitman studies.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Ed Folsom

Introduction

The Creation of a Personality

The Creation of a Book