Index
Walt Whitman is sometimes referrd to as W.W
abolitionism: WW and, 68–69, 160. See also African Americans; race; slavery
Adamic poems. See Enfans d'Adam
adhesiveness, 126127147[227n6]
affection, and problems of freedom, 109125–126, 141–142, 152
African Americans: attitudes of WW toward, 6568175–178, 179189; expanded sexual discourse and em-powerment of, 124; in military, 175–176; roles of, and white women, 189; spiritualization of, 189; suffrage, 176; voice of, WW as, 176179. See also race; racializing; racism
aggression: in Calamus,xxi, 125–126, 136–137, 138141–142, 144–151 passim,158; creation of friendly nature and, xiv; as cultural threat, 159–160; Democratic Mother in control of, 183; enemies distinguished from friends and, 158; heterosexuality and, xxi; as human propensity, [195n1]; in “I Sing the Body Electric,” xxi, [229n16]; of love, and wariness of WW, xxi; male-homoerotic desire and, xxi; of mascu-linity, 179180[242n20]; mimicking of, by WW, 86–87; of self as lover, 158; of sexuality, 147–148; transcen-dence of, 166–169, 170; words as, 46125[227n5][228n13]. See also emotions; violence
Alcaro, Marion Walker, [243n35]Walt Whitman is sometimes referred to as WW.
alcoholism and drinking, 22[207n71]. See also temperance
Alcott, Bronson, 7112–113
“All About a Mocking-Bird,” 122123[226n1]
Allen, Gay Wilson, 2280[211n18][214n22][217n35][229n17][235n41][241n13]
America. See democracy; United States
American Art Union, [217n31]
American Primer by Walt Whitman, An: With Facsimiles of the Original Manuscripts (Traubel, ed.), 107109[223n39]
American Revolution, 35
Anderson, Benedict, 8388158
Anderson, Quentin, 2
“Angel of Tears, The,” 3840
anger, in “When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd,” 155
animals, turning to, 91
anonymity, 89–90, 919396144–145, 150
anxieties of WW, xiii; aggression (see aggression); alienation, universalized per-ception of, 80; connection, 96105–106, [222n33]; control, 919396; criti-cism and, 5896123[226n2]; fear of failure, 58; guilt (see guilt); identity, 179; intimacy (see intimacy, fear of); neuters and geldings and, 81; slavery of heterosexual desire and, 16. See also audience; emotions
Aphrodite, [199n7]
apprenticeships, [204n46]
Aristidean,4
aristocratic love plot, 55
Arnold, George B., 98101[221n22]
arrogance, 59181
artists: female, 192; feminization of, 7778; in war of words, 125; worth of, 7677
Ashton, J. Hubley, [235n41]
“As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life,” 59146179–180, 188
Asselineau, Roger, [211n18][220n11]
Astor, John Jacob, 61
Atlantic Monthly,183188
attachment, 124[219n6]
audience: anger at, 106–107; as “brothers and sisters,” xiii; class of, 137; con-tact with, need for, 105–106, [222n33]; Dickinson as, 187–188; displeasure of, 100–101; divestment of loyalty to, 100; editing advice from, 98128129[228n11]; epitaph composed for, 143–144; faith in, 151–152; father as, [203n42]; future, 67193; gulf between WW and, 123; humiliation and, 143; identity affirmed by/dependent upon, 96106; as inclusive, 105; intimacy and, 105–106; literary characters as, 115; melding of, 88; as “outlines,” xiii; and partial confession, 135; personal, xvi, 103113120[222n33]; prejudice of, as addressed by WW, 134; self as, 67; size of, 37123[226n3]; social iso-lation and, xiii–xiv; in “Song of My-self,” 6771–72; trust and distrust of, 58143–144, 151; Vaughan as, 101–103; warnings to, xvi, 150–151; women as, 112186187–189, [212n7]. See also criticism
authority: ambivalence toward, 157159–167, 169–171, [236n7]; denial of, 66160–161. See also fathers; patriarchy; power
authority, poetic, 83–84, 87
autoeroticism: female vs. male, [230n18]; as rotting the voice, [224n41]; stigmati-zation of, 85; “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd” and, 170–171; of WW, 6266145. See also sexuality
Axelrod, Stephen Gould, 180[242n21]
bachelor gentleman, 18[201n34]figs. 48
“Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads, A,” xxiv, 113–114
“Bamboozle and Benjamin,” [208n1]
“Bardic Symbols.” See “As I Ebb'd with the Ocean of Life”
Barkeloo, Josephine, 9
Barnburners, 68–69
Barrus, Clara, [203n43][236n3]
Barton, William E., [237n20]
Basler, Roy P., [238n27]
Beach, Christopher, 156[199n8][236n11]
Bender, Thomas, [215n25]
Benjamin, Jessica, [195n1]
Benjamin, Park, 37
Benton, Myron, [236n3]
Béranger, Pierre-Jean de, 75[216n29]
Bercovitch, Sacvan, 173[240n4]
Bergen, Tunis G., 73
Berkeley, Henry Robinson, 167–168
Bertolini, Vincent J., [202n34] “Bervance: or, Father and Son,” 3840
Binns, Henry
Bryan, [208n2][230n19] birth control, 188–189
Bishop, Elizabeth, 143
Black, Stephen A., [208n7] blacks. See African Americans
Blasing, Mutlu Konuk, 164 “Blood-Money,” [213n11]
Bloom, Harold, 170–171
Bloom, Nathaniel, 162
Bloomer, Amelia, [240n3]
Blumin, Stuart M., [203n41]
boarding houses, 4748–50, 52
body: ambivalence toward, 85; distrust of, 84; expanded sexual discourse and minority empowerment, 124; female, reclaiming of, 189–190; maternal, as political problem solver, 189; minimiz-ing importance of, 157–158; as natu-ral, 85; remembering, 97; sacramental status of, 86–87; as symbol of democ-racy, 63[214n19]; as word, 87–88. See also sexuality
Bohan, Ruth L., [216n31]
Bollas, Christopher, 97
Booth, John Wilkes, 155159–160, 165
Boston, and obscenity, [235n41]Boston Miscellany of Literature and Fashion,38
Bowers, Fredson, [229n17][230n19][232n29]
Bowlby, John, [219n6]
Brand, Dana, 64[202n34][212n4]
Brasher, Thomas L., 53[206n56]
Brenton, James J., 2628–29, 30
Brenton, Mrs., 28–29, 30
Brenton, Orvetta Hall, 28–29
Britain, WW and, [217nn33–34], [227nn7–8], [228n9]
“Broad-Axe Poem,” [228n13]
“Broadway Pageant, A,” [238n29]
Brodhead, Richard H., [209n9]
Brooklyn Art Union, 76[214n16][217n31]
Brooklyn Daily Advertizer,[214n16]
Brooklyn Daily Eagle,4455169
Brooklyn Daily Times,546669102114192[232n29]
Brooklyniana,22–23
Brooklyn Star,69
Brown, Henry Kirke, 7576[215n27][216n28]
Brown, Herbert Ross, [210n13]
Brown, John, [227n5]
Bryant, William Cullen, 37116118[199n8][206n56]
Buchanan, James, 109161
Bucke, Richard Maurice, 6269[231nn27–28], [233n31]fig. 6caption
Burbick, Joan, [214n19]
“Burial Poem” (“To Think of Time”), 181[218n35][228n13][229n14]
Burlington Free Press and Times,[225n53]
Burroughs, John, 8159[201n26][236nn3]5
“By Blue Ontario's Shore,” [244n44]
Calamus: aggression in, xxi, 125–126, 136–137, 138141–142, 144–151 passim,158; anticipation of, 191; com-petition and, 136–137, 138; critical re-ception of, 127128[227n8]; democ-racy project and, 124–127, 141–142, 143147–148, 152[233n32][234n40]; depersonalization and, 96; faith in sex and, 137–138; gender subsuming race in, 124–125; partial confession in, 135138–152; risk-taking in, 128; rudeness in, 134136; self-censorship in, 138140–141, 142–143, 144150–152, 181[233n31]; sequence of composition of, [232n29]; as term, 127; unmasking in, 138–139; as unusual representation, 157; writing of, 54
Camden, NJ, fig. 13
camerado, as term, 104[222n32]
“Can All Marry,” 114–115, [225n50]
canon, [218n3]
Carlyle, Thomas, 173174–175
Carpenter, Edward, 75–76, 187[216n31][221n18]
castration, 156
Cauldwell, William, fig. 4caption
Cavitch, David, 73[214n22]
Ceniza, Sherry, [221n22][226n61][244nn45]48
censorship. See self-censorship
“Chants Democratic,” 161
Chapin, Fr. Edwin Hubbell, 101[221nn25–26]
Charlotte Temple (Rowson), 167[239n31]
Chauncey, George, [208n6][217n32]
“Child and the Profligate, The” (“The Child's Champion”), 42–46, 62[209n11][210n12]
“Child-Ghost, The; a Story of the Last Loyalist,” 3840
Childhood of King Erik Menved, The (Ingemann), 73[215n23]
Children of Adam. See Enfans d'Adam
“Child's Champion, The” (“The Child and the Profligate”), 42–46, 62[209n11][210n12]
“Child's Reminiscence, A.” See “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”
Cincinnati Daily Commercial,[226n2]
“City of my walks and joys!” 150
Civil War: African Americans in military, 176–177; and dead vs. living, suffering of, 167–168, [239n33]; Grant in, 164–165; homoerotic attachments and, xxii; Lincoln in, 163–164, 166[238n28]; in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” 158; WW in, xxii, 616280168185fig. 9. See also war
Clapp, Henry, 98
Clarke, Edward, 22
Clarke, McDonald, 27[206n56]
class: of audience, 137; compulsory het-erosexuality and, 54–55; democracy as binding, 147; and journalism of WW, 135; and leisure (see leisure); mainte-nance of, 145[234n35]; privileging in-sight of, xvii–xviii, 129135; Walter Senior and, 21–22, [204n49]; of WW, 107[203n41]. See also middle-class values; wealth; working class
“Clef Poem” (“On the Beach at Night Alone”), 190–191, [244n46]
Cogan, Frances B., [244n45]
Columbian,45 companions: Doyle (see Doyle, Peter);
Flood, xxiii; Leech, 30–36, [207n70]; Mas considered to be, 54[211n18]; in New Orleans, rumored, and “Walt” name change, 6972–73, 136[214nn21–22], [230n19]; physicians, 61–62, 98; satisfaction with, 157; Stafford, xxiii, 7[197n20]; type attracted to, xx, xxii, xxiii, 61–63, 77–78, 79–80, 98134–135; Vaughan (see Vaughan, Fred); in Whitestone, 36
compassion, xv, 68[212n3]; of Louisa Whitman, 9
competition: and denial of authority, 160–161; in erotic exchange, 91; homoerotic love as dismantling, 68; as impediment to male bonding, 136–137, 138; with Lincoln, 160165–166, 167; retreat from, 179; and suffering, 168. See also fathers; patriarchy; power
compulsory heterosexuality. See heterosexuality, compulsory
contact, need for, 96105–106, [222n33]
contradiction, commitment to, 147–148, 152166
control, fear of loss of, 919396
Cooper, James Fenimore, 61
corporal punishment, 46[209n9]
country life: involuntary, 23–24, 2530–35, [206n59]; as temporary idyll, 91. See also urban life
Crane, Hart, 94
criticism: of arrogance, 59; in England vs. United States, 127–128, [227n8]; by Fern, [212n7]; of fiction, 38[208n7]; on gender supplanting race, 177; gentleman persona ignored in, 57; Hannah Whitman Heyde as ignored in, 116; by Heyde, 119; on homosexual guilt, 150; on language and morals, 111–112, 188[224n47]; on letters, 33; by Louisa Whitman, 13; racial themes ignored in, 124; renunciation by WW and, 140; self-reviews, 5865–66, 111112122–124, 126128; startled critics, xv; warnings in, 188; WW's relation to, 5896123[226n2]. See also audience
“Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” 102145–146, 148[230n22]
Cult of True Womanhood, 185190[244n45]
Dalke, Anne, [210n13]
Dana, Charles A., 111
Davidson, Cathy N., [239n31]
Davis, Robert Leigh, 157185
death: acceptance of, 191193; childhood and, 117; closural force of allusions to, [228n13]; cult of, 89103–104, [222n31]; Dark Mother as, 168–169, 171175[240n8]; escape from, 103; grieving (see grief); guilt following, 168170171; as integral, 131[228n13]; vs. life, suffering of, 167–168, 169170175[239n33]; Lincoln on, 169–170, [239n35]; morbidity charges vs. symbol of, 123127; as poetic power, 123; protection of children against, 110–111. See also sexuality
“Death and Burial of McDonald Clarke. A Parody,” [206n56]
“Death in the School-Room (A Fact),” 41–42, 46
debating, 2532
“Democracy,” 176
democracy: affection and, 109125–126, 141–142, 152; ambivalence toward, 173–174; “America” as convertible term with, 126–127; body-in-process as symbol of, 63[214n19]; as containing WW, 126–127; conversion of intimacy fears and, xvii; cultural vs. political reform and, [215n25]; and homoerotic culture, 123–127, 141–142, 143147–148, 152158–159, [233n32][234n40]; imperfections in textual practice of, xvii–xix; male friendship and, xxii; maternal body and, 173; the personal vs. the ideal and, xvii; personhood and, xiv; pluralism, 126[229n16]; and “rough” persona, 57. See also faith in sex; freedom; politics; United States
“Democratic Art” (Symonds), 140
Democratic Party: Brenton and WW and, 2630; and Free-Soil movement, 68–69; George Law and, [234n39]; Locofocos, 32
Democratic Review,37–38, 41[215n25]
Democratic Vistas,126–127, 147172173–176, 180–181, 191[240nn4–5], [242n19]
departures: dynamic of, 91–92, [220n12]; as human condition, 164
Dickinson, Emily: on death and rebirth, 103104; editing of poems, 98; literary alienation of, 186187–188; northern secession poems of, [231n25]; romances of, 74–75, [215n26]; sexuality and, 188–189; WW and, xix, 187–188
Dickinson, Susan Gilbert, 7598188–189
Diehl, Joanne Feit, 179
Disraeli, Benjamin, 175
Doherty, Robert W., [202n37]
domesticity, xiv–xv; ambivalence toward, 190192[244n45]; Louisa Whitman and, 215; resistance to, 107–108; Woodbury critique of, 30–35. See also marriage; middle-class values
domestic violence, [226n62]
domination: as intrinsic, [195n1]; Louisa Whitman and resistance to, [226n61]; struggle with, of WW, xv–xvi; as unjust,
― 249 ―ambivalence toward, 180. See also patriarchy; power“Dough-Face Song” (“Song for Certain Congressmen”), [213n11]
Douglas, Ann, [201n34]
Douglas, Stephen Arnold, 160
Douglass, Frederick, 69
Dowling, Linda, [217n32][220n10]
Doyle, Peter, xxii–xxiii, fig. 10; in Civil War, 167; and deception of WW, 8; and erotic attractions of WW, [196n7][197nn15–17]; and Lincoln assassination, 155; as one of many, xxiii, [197n16]; style of letters to, 33; and theater, love of, 155[235n2]; and Vaughan, xx
Drum-Taps,13154157176[231n24]
education: reform of, 46[209n9]; of Walter Senior, 21; of women, 192; of WW, 22[204n44]
Edward VII (king of England), 166[238n29]
Eighteenth Presidency!, The,108–109, 173[224n45]
Eldridge, Charles, [227n3]
Eliot, T. S., 156[199n8]
Emerson, Ralph Waldo: appropriation of, by WW, [218n1]; content of meetings with, as unknown, 64–65, [212n6]; editing advice from, 128[228n11]; on friendship, 99–100; on intellect and detachment, 55; and “long foreground,” 56[218n1]; name change of, 69; open letter to, 63748183869098121173189[215n24][218n1]; relationship with WW, 83102121161[215n24][218n1]; sexuality of, [196n9]; on true poets, 55
emotions: authority of, 83–84; grandfather and, 3; honesty in, importance of, xiv; physical size as belying, 24; “rough” persona and experience of, 5960. See also aggression; anxieties of WW; compassion; grief; guilt; happiness; love
employment of WW: applications for, 7374; as carpenter, myth of, 79; in Clarke law office, 22; conflicts with employers, 73[214n22]; in Democratic party, 34–35; education and, [204n44]; in government, 150174[235n41]; as journalist (see journalism of WW); and leisure, desire for (see leisure); as printer, 22–23, 252628–29, [204nn44]46; real estate dealings, 78–79; as teacher, 24–25, 30–35, [209n9]
enemies, distinguishing from friends, 157–158
Enfans d'Adam (Children of Adam), 127–135, 137; critical reception of, 127–128, [227n8]; motive for, 127
English language, 90–91, 130
ennui,123[228n10]
epitaph, 143–144
equality: of gender, 120[230n23]; Hannah Whitman Heyde and, 120[226nn61–62]; lack of, in companions sought, xx, xxii, xxiii, 61–63, 77–78, 79–80, 98134–135; lack of, in poetry, 134–135; phobias of, 105[222n34]. See also class; feminism; homophobia; racism; sexism
Erkkila, Betsy, xvii, 184–185, [203n42][216n29][220n11][223n37][224n45][229n16][234n40][235n41][236n5][244n45]
erotics. See heterosexuality; homosexuality; male-homoerotic desire; sexuality
“Ethiopia Commenting.” See “Ethiopia Saluting the Colors”
“Ethiopia Saluting the Colors,” 176179 eugenics, 182[242n23]
“Europe” (“Resurgemus”), [213n11]Evening Post,[213n11]
“Faces,” 4[199nn7–8], [204n43]
“Fact-Romance,” 34–5, 14
faith in sex, 81121; in competition with social disease, 84121; as displacing authoritarian Father, 88; and literary vocation, 137; male homoerotic love included in, 152; remembering of body and, 97; and working-class roots, 97. See also sexuality
family: archetypal, xv; chosen, [196n12]; disaffection from, xix–xx, 2105984–85, 137192; ideal, biological fathers as excluded from, 46; idealization of, 23; journalism of WW and, 4–6; metaphor/portrait of, and United States, 86126; as misunderstanding WW, 2; as model in Leaves of Grass,83, 84–88, 94–97, 114–121; from personal to archetypal, 8384–88, 94–97, 107114–115, 117161–162, 173; WW as head of, 69107. See also fathers; mothers
fantasies, Leech correspondence and, 35–36
fathers: absence of, as ideal, 46; as abusive, 41; ambivalence toward, 157161169; authoritarian, 86–87, 8895157161; exclusion of, 1346
fathers (continued) 182; ideal, 137; impersonation of ideal, 107; race and, 189; reconciling with, 180; resistance to (see patriarchy; power); roles of, 189; surrogate (see father surrogates); understanding rejected by, 179–180. See also family; mothers; Whitman, Walter Senior
father surrogates: Hartshorne as, 22–23; in ideal family, 46; WW as, 107
Fehrenbacher, Don E., [238n28]
femininity: of society, war and, [197n21]. See also gender; masculinity
feminism: antisex stance in, 188–189; characterization of, by WW, 177; prosex stance in, 189–190. See also mothers; sexism; women
feminization: compensatory virilization and, xvi–xvii; erotic self-abandonment and, 132133; identification as female, and male-homoerotic desire, 89–90, 93116129–130, 132–134, 184[228n12]; as legitimating, 138140; retreat into, 179–183, 184; surrender to, as psychic wholeness, 88–89; war's futility and, 175. See also gender
Fern, Fanny (Sara Willis Parton), 192[212n7][244n48]
fiction, xiv; abandonment of, in denial of male-homoerotic desire, 3852–53, 54–55, [210n12]; conventionality of, 38[208n7]; and disaffection from family, 84–85; income resulting from, 37–38; intimacy and, xvii; as lifelong option, 54; male bonding in plotlines of, 41–46, 51–52, 53–55, [209nn11][210n12]; mother in, 11; readership of, 37; WW's opinion of, 3753. See also language; literary tradition; poetry; sentimentality; style
Fifteenth Amendment, 176
Flood, John (Broadway Jack), xxiii
Folsom, Ed, 155[208n8]
Fone, Bryne R. S., xvii, [209n11]
Forbush, Bliss, [203n37]
Foucault, Michel, 9091[219n10]
Fowlers and Wells, 58
Franklin, R. W., [215n26][231n25]
Franklin Evans or The Inebriate: A Tale of the Times,xvii, 373946–53, 5470–71, [210–211nn13]–14, [211n23]
“Free Academies at Public Cost,” 192
Freedman, Florence Bernstein, [209n9]
freedom: affection and problem of, 109125–126, 141–142, 152; from gender, as escape, 103–104; vs. limitation, as difficult distinction, 63; Louisa Whitman as imparting love of, 15; problem of, xv, 109152; romanticization of, 136. See also democracy; sexuality
Free Enquirer,22
Free-Soil movement, 68–69, 73[224n45]
French language, use of, 90–91
Freud, Sigmund, 123–124
friendships: enemy relationship distinguished from, 157–158; as human necessity, 136; male (see male bonding; male friendship; male-homoerotic desire); romantic (see romantic friendships). See also companions
Frost, Robert, 95
Galaxy,174176[201n26]
Gatta, John, [244n47]
gay, as term, 49[211n15]
gay studies, xx, [217n33]
gender: archetypes of, 83; audience displeasure with contested, 100–101; biological reduction of women, 184; as cultural construction, 90; derationalization and, 39; domesticity vs. self-development and, 190[244n45]; equality of, 120[230n23]; fear of female, 103; freedom from, as escape, 103–104; idleness and, 30; of intelligence, [230n23]; loss of, through male identification with female, 89–90, 93116129–130, 132–134, 184[228n12]; race and roles of, 189; race critique and, 40–41; race subsumed by discourse of, 124–125, 173–178; war and, xxiii, [197n21]. See also class; race; sexuality
genre, [211n20]
Germany, WW's influence in, [217n33]
Gilbert, Sandra M., 186
Gilchrist, Anne, 98187[201n26][243n35]
Gilfoyle, Timothy J., [211n21]
glistening, use of, 136[230n22]
God, 9293
Gohdes, Clarence, 118
Golden, Arthur, 33[206n65][214n20]
Graham, Jorie, 97
Grant, Ulysses S., 163164[241n13]
Gray, Fred, xxii, 162
“Great Are the Myths” (“Poem of a Few
Greatnesses”), 130–131, [228n13]
Greece, ancient: homosexuality in, 76–77, [217n32]; male divinity in, 79; values of, as superior, 76
greed: as disruptive, 39. See also wealth
Greeley, Horace, 64[241n13]
Greenspan, Ezra, 105[197n12][221n26]
grief: homoerotic culture and, 158–159; in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” 155156158–159, 166–170, [239n33]
Griswold, Rufus N., 112
Grosskurth, Phyllis, [231n26]
Grossman, Allen, [237n23]
Grossman, Jay, [233n32]
Grünzweig, Walter, 217
guilt: death and, 168170171; about homosexuality, 150; love and, 133; sexual, 191. See also emotions
Hale, Edward Everett, 111
Hale, John Parker, 72–73
Half-Breed, The: A Tale of the Western Frontier,40–41
Halperin, David M., [217n32]
hands: dangers of, 110; and handwriting, 116158[224n46]; unseen, 90116; and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” 155158170–171
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle, [239n2]
happiness: commitment to finding, 152; masculinity in opposition to, 40; personae in defense of, 57; as theme, xv; WW's need to provide, 80. See also emotions
Harlan, James, [235n41]
Harned, Thomas, [208n2]
Harper's Magazine,124
Hart, Ellen Louise, [215n26]
Hartshorne, William, 22–23
Hassett, William, [225n53]
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 373869191
Hayes, A. H., [214n22]
Hazan, Cindy, [219n6]
Helms, Alan, [233n30]
heterosexuality: aggression and, xxi; compulsory (see heterosexuality, compulsory); male-homoerotic desire as stage toward, [209n11]; norms of, and isolation of WW, xiii–xiv; pregnancy as assumed outcome of, 181; as slavery, 16. See also homosexuality; sexuality
heterosexuality, compulsory, 54–55, 131–132, 152; anonymous lovemaking in opposition to, 89–90; mocking style and, 125; repression into, 150; self-revision and, 67–68; shame and, 190. See also homophobia
Heyde, Charles (brother-in-law), 116118–120, [200n24][225nn58–60], [226n62]–63
Heyde, Hannah Whitman (sister), 114–121, [200n24][225nn51]535960[226nn61–63]; as audience, xvi; birth of, 7; death of, 117[225nn53]; depressions of, 117119–120; and mother, relationship with, 78; WW's identification with, 113114118120–121
Hicks, Elias, 20–21, [202nn37–39]
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 187188
history: ambivalence toward, as shaping poetry, 186; as gendered, 92; as heroic, 23; naive believer, WW as, 131; obliteration of, 75; transmutation of self through revision of, 68; women's, as contested, 185
Holland, Josiah Gilbert, 188
Hollis, C. Carroll, [218n2]
Holloway, Emory, 133[211n18][214n16][229nn16–17]
“Home Burial” (Frost), 95
homophobia: critique of, 147; equality as phobia and, 105[222n34]; as inhibiting, xvi–xviii, 152[234n40]; internalized, 150[234n40]; lack of, in romantic friendship, [207n65]. See also class; gender; racism; self-censorship; sexism
homosexuality: of ancient Greeks, 76–77, [217n32]; discourse of, movement toward, 77; gay, as term, 49[211n15]; guilt about, 150; as identity, xxii; queer, as term, 38[208n6]. See also heterosexuality; sexuality
homosexual rights, xxii, 138–141
hospital visits, xxii, 616280168185
“Hours continuing long, sore and heavy-hearted,” 142–144, [233n31]
“House of Friends, The,” [213n11]
humor, sense of: lack of, 61–62; in Leaves of Grass,6791
Hunkers, 69
Hutchinson, George B., xvii
Hyde, Lewis, 181
hypermasculinity: as defense, 5770–71
identity: anxiety about, 179; death and loss of, 103; and female, identification with, 116; feminization and, 179–181. See also self
“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” (Dickinson), 103
ignorance, 134
“Incident on Long Island Forty Years Ago, An” (“When my mother was a girl”), 4–5, 6
Indians. See Native Americans
individualism: excessive, as illness, 648895; as isolating, 123126147. See also isolation
Ingemann, Bernhard, 73[215n23]
intimacy, fear of, xiii, xxi; anonymity
intimacy (continued) and, 96; audience and, 106; easing of, xvi; encompassing imagery and, xvi; Enfans d'Adam and, 130; and “real” self, xiv; transformation of, 193. See also anonymity; anxieties of WW
Irigaray, Luce, 133[230n18]
Irishmen, in The Half-Breed,40–41
“I Saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,” 124–125, 134152
“I Sing the Body Electric”: aggression in, xxi, [229n16]; death and, [228n13]; family archetypes in, 83; intelligence as gendered in, [230n23]; prejudice addressed in, 134; race and, 189; reviews of, [224n47][229n16]
isolation: avoidance of disturbing particulars and, 8; and heterosexual norms, rejection of, xiii–xiv; individualism as causing, 123126147; perfect love and, 157; and sexual secrecy, 148. See also emotions; individualism; self
Jacksonian era, 8597[219n7]
James, Henry, 33[200n26][231n26]
jealousy, 138140142143[233n31]
Jeffords, Susan, [197n21]
Johnson, Andrew, 165
Johnson, Thomas H., [215n26][221n21][231n25]
journalism of WW, fig. 5; art criticism, 76[216n31]; at Brooklyn Daily Times,54, 6669102114192[232n29]; class privilege and, 135; disenchantment with, 69; early employment and, 22; as editor, 54; family themes in, 4–6; homoeroticism and, xvii; imperfect ideals and, xvii–xviii; interest in, discovery of, 22; as Knickerbocker, 64[212n4]; on New York Aurora,52–53, [211n22]; at New York Daily News,[212n10]; ownership of paper, 25; at Weekly Freeman,68–69; on women's equality, 177192. See also employment of WW
Kaplan, Justin, [196n9][205n51][211n16][223n40][231n28][241n13]
Karp, David Lawrence, [222n31]
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald, 166
Kennedy, William Sloane, 187[243n34]
Kenny, Maurice, [208n8]
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie, xvii, 151[228n11][232n30][235n41][242n23]
Kings County Lunatic Asylum, [200n21]
Kinnell, Galway, 156
Kirkpatrick, Jean Romig, [210n13]
Knickerbocker journalists, 64[212n4]
Komunyakaa, Yusef, [214n21]
Kunhardt, Dorothy Meserve, [235n1]
Kunhardt, Philip B., [235n1]
language: brutal, [218n41]; death and, 111; as divisive, 56; English, 90–91, 130; freeing of, 67; French, use of, 90–91; Greek, as homosexual code, [217n32]; invention of, 63; male friendship as absent in, 121; maternal vs. paternal, 182183; passion for, 131–132, [229n14]; resistance to norms of, 172; in resistance to patriarchy, 55; rude, 818284112[224n48]; self-determination and, 172; self-division and, 80; of sexuality, 109; of souls, 54; of suffering, [239n33]; symbolic, 33; transformation through, 184193; as weapon, 46125[227n5][228n13]; word frequency, [220n15]; zeal of, 68. See also democracy; fiction; literary tradition; poetry; sentimentality; style; voice
Larson, Kerry C., [229n15][236n7]
Lathem, Edwin Connery, [220n14]
Law, George, [234n39]
Lawrence, D. H., 184[222n31]
Leaves of Grass: as child of WW, 96; departure dynamic and, 91–92, [220n12]; humor in, 6791; imperfect idealism in, xvii–xix; Lincoln as reader of, [237n20]; Louisa Whitman as muse for, 12819185[201n33]; as merger of social and erotic experience, 146; missionary intentions of, xv; mother as quoting, 18; motherhood as constant in, 172; publication of, 97–98, 122123[226n3][235n41]; as record of self, xiii, xxiv; “rough” persona and, 60; self-reviews of, 65–66, 122–124, 126128; size of readership, 37123[226n3][235n41]; twenty-eight as number in, 114
Leaves of Grass (1855): Adam and Eve in, 130–131; audience and, xiii–xiv; body as focus of, 8897; contradiction and, 64; as creation of experience, 59; death in, 131[228n13]; drive for creation of, 79–80; faith in sex, 81848897; family and, 8384–88, 94–97, 114–121; fear of intimacy and, xvi; frontispiece for,fig. 7; gender and, 100; male-homoerotic desire as claimed/ disowned in, 90–97; misegenation as concept in, [211n23]; mother in,
― 253 ―14; “Preface,” xvi, 108173183192[195n3]; publicity for, 65–66; representational exclusion and, 62–63; and “rough” persona, 6080102; selfreviews for, 65–66; selves-in-crisis of, 62–63; sexual freedom and, 66; sexualized emotion and defamiliarization, xiii; transference in, 88; unconscious intentions and, 58; and unconstraint, 62; voices of, as divergent, 58; “Walt” name change in, 70Leaves of Grass (1856): body as focus of, 8897; death in, [228n13]; defamiliarization emphasized in, xiii; Emerson, open letter to, 63748183869098121173189[215n24][218n1]; faith in sex, 81848897; family and, 8384–88, 94–97, 114–121; gender and, 100; male-homoerotic desire as claimed/disowned in, 90–97; merger of social and sexual experience in, 148–149; transference in, 88; United States in, 8486
Leaves of Grass (1860): career disavowal in, 181; Charles Heyde on, 118–119; critical reception of, 123124127–128, [227n8]; death and rebirth in, 104[222n32]; frontispiece of, 128fig. 8; functional self, competing conceptions of, 124; homoerotic desire privileged in, xiii; male-homoerotic desire as self-censored in, 105135138–152, 181[228n11][230n17][231nn27–28], [232n30][233nn31]34[234n40][235n41]; as “odd,” 122124–125, 131; publication of, 122123[226n3]; selfreviews of, 122–124, 126128; typography of, 122124–125, 146
Leaves of Grass (1871): race and gender in, 176
Leaves of Grass (1881): Boston persecution and sales of, [235n41]; “Once I passed through a populous city,” 133–134, 135; prostitute lines excised in, 130; publication of, [235n41]
Leaves of Grass (1920): differences from prior editions, 133–134
Leech, Abraham Paul, 30–36, [207n70]
“Legend of Life and Love, A,” 40
leisure: ethic of, 1130[220n14]; gender and, 30; Louisa Whitman and, 1118; WW and, 1118[201n34]. See also class; employment of WW
Leverenz, David, 42–43, [203n41]
Levi-Strauss, Claude, 179
Lily, The,[240n3]
Lincoln, Abraham: ambivalence of WW toward, 159–167, 170[238n27]; appearance of, 159162–163; assassination of, 154–155, 162164165167170193[235n1]; in Civil War, 163–164, 166[238n28]; on death, 169–170, [239n35]; as “dictator,” [238n28]; elegies for, 165; as reader of WW, [237n20]. See also “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd”
“Lincoln Reminiscence, A,” [238n27]
literary tradition: alienation from, as wellspring, 186; attack on, by WW, 6682–84, 88; ignorance of, WW as exaggerating, 96; language of, 104–105; sentimentality and, 185; stereotypes of, 105; “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd” as belying WW's struggle against, 156. See also democracy; fiction; language; poetry; style
“Live Oak with Moss,” [232n29]
Locofocos, 32
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1337
Longfellow, Samuel, 75[215n27]
Long Islander,25
“Long I thought that knowledge alone would suffice me,” 138140142[232n29][233n31]
Lord, Otis, 189
love: guilt and, 133; transforming power of, 193. See also sexuality
Love and Death (Symonds), 139
Loving, Jerome, 118[215n24][225n57][228n11][235n41][241n13]
Lowell, James Russell, 37111
Lynch, Michael, [227n6]
Madman, The,53–54
male bonding: competition as impediment to, 136–137, 138; in fiction plotlines, 41–46, 51–52, 53–55, [209n11][210n12]
male friendship: adhesiveness and, [227n6]; democracy and, xxii; Emerson on, 99–100; limitations of, 98; romantic (see romantic friendships)
male-homoerotic desire: abandonment of fiction in denial of, 3852–53, 54–55, [210n12]; adhesiveness, 126127147[227n6]; as aesthetic, 126; aggression and, xxi; Calamus poems as exemplifying (see Calamus); claiming/disowning in early editions of Leaves of Grass,90–97; companions of WW (see companions); competition and, 68136–137, 138; and control, fear of loss of,
male-homoerotic desire (continued)919396; democracy and, 123–127, 141–142, 143147–148, 152158–159, [233n32][234n40]; erotic coerciveness and, 106; as excessive, xxi; family relationships as model for, 88; and female, identification with, 89–90, 93116129–130, 132–134, 184[228n12]; as fluid, xxii–xxiii; grief and, 158–159; ideal family as constituted by, 46; and low-class other, 134–135; physical expression of, xx–xxii; privileging of, xiii; renunciation of, 105135138–152, 181[228n11][230n17][231nn27–28], [232n30][233nn31]34[234n40][235n41]; subculture of, 75; tensions of WW in expression/selfsuppression of, 159; as undemocratic, 127140; women's roles in culture of, 125. See also feminization; male bonding; male friendship; romantic friendships
Man-Love poems. See Calamus
marriage: bad food and, [207n67]; dismantling of, 130–131; early, as counseled, 474953; feminist view of, according to WW, 177; male-homoerotic desire as stage toward, [209n11]; malemale, 140142; pledge to, as rapidly exhausted, 132–133; sexism of, 179; social attitudes and, [206n59]; transgression of WW toward, 29–30, [206n59]; as unavailable to all, 85[225n50]; as unhappy, 52. See also domesticity;
middle-class values; sexuality
Martin, Robert K., xvii, 135[217n33][229n17][230n20]
masculinity: aggression of, retreat from, 179–180, [242n20]; authorship and, xvi–xvii; disaffection from, xix; drinking and, [207n71]; hypermasculinity, as defense, 5770–71; Louisa Whitman's ideals of, 3; romantic friendship and, [207n65]; war and, xxiii, 15[197n21]. See also femininity; feminization; gender
Maslan, Mark, [224n46]
master narrative, 46
masturbation. See autoeroticism
Matthiessen, F. O., [220n11]
McClure, J. E., [214n22]
McPherson, James, 175–176
Melville, Herman, 69
memory: grief and, 168169; poet's
mission and, 97; repression of, 158168
men: single, sexuality and, 85115; as term, 183[243n26]. See also fathers; gender; mothers; women
metaphor, [211n23]
Meyers, Marvin, [219n7]
middle-class values, xiv–xv; domesticity (see domesticity); food and, 30–31, 32–34, 35[207n67]; marriage (see marriage); and publication of work, 97; racializing in fiction of, 39; Woodbury critique of, 30–35. See also class; working class
Miller, Edwin H., [217n32]
Miller, James E., [229n16]
mind, and body as lost vs. found, 97
Mitchell, Donald Grant, [201n34]
modernity, maternity as answer to problem of, 178
Moers, Ellen, 30
Molinoff, Katherine, 118[200n19][225nn51]53
Moon, Michael, xvii, 146156157[201n26][210n12][232n30][236n13][243n26]
“Moral Effect of the [Atlantic] Cable, The,” [216n29]
morbidity, charges of, 123127[228n10]. See also death
Morris, Timothy, [218n3]
mothers: absence of, violence and, 39–40; agency of, males and, 173179190; ambivalence of WW and, 172–173, 178–183, 189–192; careers of, 177192[241n15][244n45]; creativity as symbolized by, 184–185, [242n23]; Dark Mother, 168–169, 171175[240n8]; as de-eroticized, 189–190; divine, 177191; “good motherhood,” 178192; and healthy sexuality, 109; ideal, 137; in ideal family, 46; identity and, 179–180; inadequate, as patriarchal role, 169; motherist movement/ cult, 172–173, [239nn2–3]; as muse, 12819172185[201n33]; as nurturant, 41; perfect, xviii–xix, 180–181; Poem-Mother, 182–183; as political problem solver, 189; poverty of, 46; as programmatic, 173; as supreme goal, 184–185, 189–192. See also family; fathers; Whitman, Louisa Van Velsor
mother-surrogates, 7
Mott, Frank Luther, [208n2]
Muchmore, W. M., 73
Murray, Patty, [241n15]
muscle: offset hoped for, 56; semitic/seminal, [244n44]; as symbol, 66[212n7]; and tenderness, 60
muses, 12819169172185[201n33]
music, 107[223n41]
“My Boys and Girls,” 69117[213n12]
Myers, F. W. H., 139[231n26]
“Myself and Mine,” 160
narcissism, 166[221n19] narratives: master, 46; repressed, 88–89
Nathanson, Tenney, xvii, 107[218n2]
nationalism, 83126138[233n31]; of canonical texts, [218n3]. See also democracy; United States
Native Americans: attitudes of WW toward, 39; Louisa Whitman and, 14–15; rage of, 39; and The Half-Breed,40–41
nature, expansion of, 68
Newfield, Christopher, 183[197n14][242n20]
New Orleans, and “Walt” name change, 6972–73, 136[214nn21–22], [230n19]
New Orleans Crescent,[214n22]
New World,37424445
New York, NY, 60–61, 174[234n39]
New York Aurora,52–53, [211n22]
New York Daily News,[212n10]
New York Dispatch,[213n11]
New York Saturday Press,123[226n1]
New York Times,119[227n7]
New York Tribune,111[213n11]
North American Review,111
Norton, Charles Eliot, 111–112
notebooks, 3[198n4]; on Enfans d'Adam,127; evidence for transformation romance, lack of, 74; lost Emerson conversations, [212n6]; on male-homoerotic desire, 149–150; “Pictures” and, 77–78; on renunciation, 148; sexual attitudes in, 65; on soul, 149; Van Velsor's and war, 5[198n5]
November Boughs,20
Nussbaum, Martha, [212n3]
nymphs, 169
Oates, Stephen B., [227n5]
objectification, 58
“O Captain! My Captain!” 164
O'Connor, Ellen, 98[196n12][227n3]; WW's correspondence with, 11174178
O'Connor, William Douglas, 174[196n12][227n3][228n9]; break with WW, [241n13]; defense of WW, 119[201n26][241n13]
Olds, Sharon, [244n44]
“Once I passed through a populous city,” 133–134, 135
“One Wicked Impulse,” 41
“On the Beach at Night Alone” (“Clef Poem”), 190–191, [244n46]
orgasm, [224n47]
Osgood, James R., [235n41]
Ostriker, Alicia, 184185[222n35]
“Our Future Lot” (“Time to Come”), 26–27, [206n56]
“Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” 98123; personal suffering and, 123124; unity and, 126
parody, [206n56]
Parton, James, [232n29]
Parton, Sara Willis (Fanny Fern), 192[212n7][244n48]
Partridge, Eric, [208n6]
“Passage to India,” 94
patriarchy: authority, ambivalence toward, 157159–167, 169–171, [236n7]; Democratic Mother in resistance to, 183–184; denial of authority of, 160–161; language in resistance to, 55; mother absence and abuses of, 38–40. See also competition; fathers; isolation; politics; power
Patriot,22
Pease, Donald E., [219n9]
Perloff, Marjorie, [211n20]
persecution of WW, 150[235n41]
Pessen, Edward, [234n35]
Peterson, Merrill D., [237n20]
Pfaff's, 6198
philosophy, plans to write book of, 27
photographs of WW, 5666128[212n1]figs. 4–13
“Pictures,” 77[217n34]
Plato, 76–77
pluralism, 126[229n16]
Poe, Edgar Allan, 376169
“Poem of a Few Greatnesses” (“Great Are the Myths”), 130–131, [228n13]
“Poem of Procreation” (“A Woman Waits for Me”), 190
“Poem of The Dead Young Men of Europe” (“Europe”), [213n11]
“Poem of the Road” (“Song of the Open Road”), 148–149, 176
“Poem of The Sayers of The Words of The Earth” (“Song of the Rolling Earth”), 87, 94 “Poem of Women” (“Unfolded Out of the
Folds”), 182
poetry: as antipatriarchal, 55; aspiration to gentility, 56; authority of (see authority, poetic); death as forestalled by, 164; departures as stimulating, 164; editing advice on, 98128129[228n11];
― 256 ―faith in, 121; gendered ambivalence and, 186; light of, 114; power of, 123124; secession, northern, [231n25]; self-censorship of (see selfcensorship); shift to, 54–55, 69[213n11]; “song” in titles of, [216n29]; spiritual power of writing, 68. See also fiction; language; literary tradition; sentimentality; stylepoets, true, 55
politics: ambivalence of WW and, 131; definition of, [195n2]; dream of, refusal to surrender, [240n4]; reform of, [215n25]; refusal to identify with party, [224n45]; representation of WW and, 64; WW as withdrawing from, 138. See also democracy; social reform; United States
Pollak, Vivian R., [215n26]
Pound, Louise, [220n11]
power: definition of, [195n2]; fiction in resistance to, 38–40; private vs. public, for women, 191–192; in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” 170. See also authority; fathers; patriarchy
precedents: weighing extremity of abandonment of, 123–124; withdrawal from, 83–84, 88
Price, Abby Hills, 98–99, 163[221n22][228n10]
Price, Helen, 709899[213n14][221n22]
Price, Kenneth M., 164[200n26][201n33][206n56][215n24]
private vs. public domains, 105–106, 137140[222n36][223n37]; women's roles and, 191–192
prostitution, 130132135
protection, 109–111
“Proto-Leaf” (“Starting from Paumanok”), 141161
“Proud Music of the Storm,” 13183
publicity, by WW, 5865–66, 111112122–124, 126128
public vs. private domains. See private vs. public domains
Puritanism, 9091
Quakerism, 420[198n6][201n37]
queer, as term, 38[208n6]
race: Civil War deaths and, 175–176; Dark Mother and, 171; expanded sexual discourse and empowerment of, 124; gender critique and, 40–41; gender discourse subsuming, 124–125, 173–178; gender roles and, 189; imperial presence and, 166; miscegenation, concept of, [211n23]. See also African Americans
racializing: Dark Mother and, [240n8]; derationalization and, 39; romanticization of freedom and, 136; of “The Sleepers,” 14–15. See also sentimentality
racism: of Carlyle's essay, 174–175; challenges to, in writings of WW, 134; evasion of contributions by nonwhites, 175–176; O'Connor split and, [241n13]; of WW, xvii–xviii, 175–178, [241n13]. See also abolitionism; slavery; social reform
Ramazani, Jahan, 164169
Rankin, Henry B., [237n20]
Raritan Bay Union, [221n22]
Raymond, Henry Jarvis, 119
real self: desire for, 181; as gendered, 92; lack of intimacy with, xiv; meaning of, xiv; as mocking, 152; performance of self and, 145–147; transformation of, 193. See also identity; individualism; self
Rees Welsh & Co., [235n41]
religion: Louisa Whitman and, 17; Quakerism in background of WW, 420[199n6][202n37]; Walter Senior and, [217n35]; WW and, 22101168
“Respondez! Respondez!” 162
“Resurgemus” (“Europe”), [213n11]
reviews. See criticism
Reynolds, David S., xvii, 84[201n28][204n47][205n51][209n9][210n13]
Rich, Adrienne, 186[243n33]
Roman Catholicism, 40–41
romantic friendships, [206n65]; name change and, 66–67, 70–72, 74–75, [214n21]; problem of, xx. See also friendships; male-homoerotic desire
Roosa, D. B., 61–62
Rorabaugh, W. J., [204n46]
Rorty, Richard, 6063–64, 147148[212n2]
Rossetti, William Michael, [228n9]
Rotundo, E. Anthony, [203n41][206n65]
Rover,117
Rowson, Susanna, 167[239n31]
Rubin, Gayle, 179
Rubin, Joseph Jay, [205n49]
rudeness: as insufficient, 136; of language, 818284112[224n48]; romanticization of, 134
Runge, William H., [239n32]
Ryan, Mary, [240n3]
Sacks, Peter M., 157158[236n13]
Sánchez-Eppler, Karen, xvii, [211n23]
Saturday Press,98
Savage, Kirk, [216n27]
Scarlet Letter, The (Hawthorne), 191
Schmidgall, Gary, [198n2]
school reform, 46[209n9]
Scofield, Minard S., 79
Scott, Sir Walter, 22
Scribner's Monthly,188
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky, [202n34][217n33][225n58][227nn6]8
self: as author, 62–64; development of, as ideal, 190–191, [244n45]; of feminist criticism, xviii; imperial, 159; mythology of, xxiii–xxiv; real (see real self); record of, xxiv; repression of, xxiii–xxiv; sexual abandonment of, 132133; as weapon, [228n13]; writing to instantiate, 181. See also identity; individualism
self-censorship: abandonment of fiction in denial of male-homoerotic desire, 3852–53, 54–55, [210n12]; Emerson's suggestions for, 128[228n11]; Lincoln material, omissions in, 155159165170[236nn5]7[238n27]; and renunciation of male-homoerotic desire, 105135138–152, 181[228n11][230n17][231nn27–28], [232n30][233nn31]34[234n40][235n41]. See also criticism; homophobia; persecution of WW
self-reviews, 5865–66, 111112122–124, 126128
self-sufficiency: as self-deception, [242n21]. See also individualism
Sellers, Charles, [203n41]
semen, 93182183190[224n47][242n24][244n44]
semitic/seminal, 190[244n44]
sentimentality: appropriate vs. inappropriate, 28; as buffer, 136–138; of childhood, 117; and democracy of feeling, 134; denial of, 70; racialism, 14–15; as suppressing distinctions, 185; welfare of living vs. dead in literature of, 167; in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” 158167. See also fiction; language; literary tradition; poetry; style
separate spheres, xix, 192193
Seward, William Henry, 162
sexism: Enfans d'Adam and, 130; male voice for women, xix, 172173178–179, 182183–184, 186–187, 191–192; woman as death and, [240n8]; in writings of WW (see mothers; women). See also feminism; gender; social reform; women
sexual democracy. See democracy
sexuality: autoeroticism (see autoeroticism); confusion about, 63; empowerment of (see faith in sex); grieving and, 156158–159; narcissism, 166[221n19]; origins of, 109–110; power of, 109; precedents, abandonment of, 83–84, 88123–124; private vs. public domains and, 105–106, 137140[222n36][223n37]; repression of (see sexual repression); sadism and, 147–148; secrecy about, 145148; as sublimated to utopian formulations, 62; trisexuality, [221n19]; voices of poetry and attitudes toward, 63. See also gender; heterosexuality; homosexuality; malehomoerotic desire
sexual repression: as constitutive of WW's work, 147–148; masculine resources and, 115; single women and, 114–115
“Shadow and the Light of a Young Man's
Soul, The,” 2454[205n50]
Shakespeare, William, 16
Shaver, Phillip R., [219n6]
Shiveley, Steven B., [208n8]
Shively, Charley, [221n25]
“Shooting Niagara,” 173174–175
Silver, Rollo G., 118
slave of love, 132[229n15]
slavery: in Whitman family, [241n13]; WW and, 54[224n45]. See also abolitionism; African Americans; race
“Sleepers, The,” xix, 14–17, [215n23]; grandmother and, 3–4; search for identity and, 94182
Smith, Barbara Herrnstein, [229n13]
Smith, Martha Nell, [215n26]
Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll, [206n59][207n65]
Smithtown Debating Society, 25
social reform: abolitionism (see abolitionism); ambivalence toward, 173; desire for, 60114; of education, 46[209n9]; feminism (see feminism; gender); friendships and, 46; gay studies, xx, [217n33]; homosexual rights, xxii, 138–141; vs. poetic expression, xvii; vs. political reform, [215n25]; temperance (see temperance)
sodomy charges, accusations of, xxi, [209n9]
solitude, as dangerous, 60
“So Long!” 104
“Song for Certain Congressmen” (“Dough-Face Song”), [213n11]
“Song for Occupations, A,” 105–106, 108120
“Song of Myself”: aggression of love in, xxi; conceived as spiritual novel, 54; The Half-Breed compared to, 40; and intimacy, xvi, xxi; Louisa Whitman as quoting, 18; touch as discussed in, 58596063
“Song of Myself” (1855): audience and, 6771–72; companions in notes for, 79–80; feminization and, 89–90, 93116184; and gentility, 57; glistening in, [230n22]; great-grandfather and, [199n6]; Hannah Whitman Heyde as model for twenty-ninth bather, 115–121; and literature, attack on, 82–83; lovemaking in, 89–97; punctuation of, 72
“Song of the Answerer,” 57
“Song of the Broad-Axe,” 161
“Song of the Open Road” (“Poem of the Road”), 148–149, 176
“Song of the Rolling Earth” (“Poem of The Sayers of The Words of The Earth”), 8794
soul: body and, 101; and individualism, excesses of, 95; language of, 54. See also body; self
Specimen Days,345[197n20][220n15]
Spiegelman, Willard, [220n12]
Springfield Daily Republican,188
Stafford, Harry, xxiii, 7[197n20]fig. 11
Stafford, Susan, 7fig. 11caption
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 189–190
“Starting from Paumanok” (“ProtoLeaf”), 141
states rights, 161
Stoddard, Richard Henry, 165[238n27]
Stovall, Floyd, [204n44]
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 185
Stuart, Carlos D., 73
style, xv; as heterodox, 185–186; of letters, 33; of Mocking-Bird poet, 125152. See also fiction; language; literary tradition; poetry
suffering: attraction to (see hospital visits); of dead vs. living, 167–168, 169170[239n33]
suffrage, 175176177
“Sun-Down Papers from the Desk of a
Schoolmaster,” 18242527–28, [207n67]
“Supplement Hours,” [220n15]
supremes, 160–162, 166
surrogate fathers. See father surrogates
Sweet, Timothy, [241n9]
symbolism: breasts, 191[244n46]; eyes, 137[231n24]; fishermen, 150; food, 30–31, 32–34, 35[207n67]; hands (see hands); hermit thrush, 59159164168169170[236n3]; horses, 2591; lilacs, 155158170171[235n1]; live-oak, 136[230n21]; mullen/mullein/sullen, 95[220n15]; muscle (see muscle); phallus, xvi, 7879127[230n18]; ship of state, 163–164. See also language
Symonds, Catherine North, [231n26]
Symonds, John Addington, 5575138–141, [218n41][231nn26]28[233n31][235n43]
Taylor, Zachary, 169
temperance: fiction of, 42–54, [210nn13–14]; Leech to WW on, 34; masculinity vs., [207n71]. See also social reform
“Thanatopsis” (Bryant), [206n56]
Thayer and Eldridge, 122123[226n3]
“There Was a Child Went Forth,” 849596180182[242n21]
“These I Singing in Spring,” [230n21]
Thomas, M. Wynn, 21–22, 106[203n41][222n36][242n19]
Thoreau, Henry David, 69112
“Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood,” [242n24]
“Time to Come” (“Our Future Lot”), 26–27, [206n56]
“To a Common Prostitute,” [230n22]
Todd, Mabel Loomis, 189
Tomc, Sandra, 1130
“To Think of Time” (“Burial Poem”), 181[218n35][228n13][229n14]
Trachtenberg, Alan, [223n37]
Traubel, Horace, 119223875107117–118, [198n1][218n41][223n39][241n13]; as biographer, 11938[198n1]–2, [208n2]fig. 13caption
Tyndale, Hector, 128129[228n10]
Tyndale, Sarah, [207n68][228n10][232n29]
typography, 122124–125, 146
“Unfolded Out of the Folds” (“Poem of Women”), 182
United States: family portrait of, 86; metaphors of family and, 126; moral continent of, 84; Woman-Love poems and, 127[227n8]. See also democracy
urban life: enjoyment of, 60–61, 64–65, [206n59]; escape from, 91. See also country life
Van Nostrand, Mary Whitman (sister), 7[200n24][211n18]
Van Velsor, Alonzo (uncle), [199n9]
Van Velsor, Amy (grandmother), 3–5, 6[198n6]
Van Velsor, Cornelius (“Kell,” grandfather), 34–6, [198n5][199n9]
Vaughan, Fred, 98–99, 101–103, [221n25][222n29][224n41]fig. 11caption; as audience, 101–103; Brooklyn visit of, 12; eagerness of, xx; in Pfaff's, 98; WW's warning to self about, xx, 102–103
Vendler, Helen, 165[239n33]
Views of Society and Manners in America (Wright), 190
violence: absence of mothers and, 39–40; domestic, [226n62]; maternal return in avoidance of, 169; national identity and, 193; and political change, 155[227n5][236n5]. See also aggression; emotions
Virgin Mary cult, 191
virilization, xvi–xvii. See also feminization; hypermasculinity
vocalism, 107[223n41]
voice: of African Americans, WW as, 176179; multivocality of Leaves of Grass,58; self-representation and, 186; of women, WW as, xix, 172173178–179, 182183–184, 186–187, 191–192
Volney, Constantin, 22
vulnerability: celebration of, 97
war: homosocial bonds of, 15; remasculinization and, xxiii, [197n21]; Van Velsors and, 3[198n5]. See also Civil War
Ward, John Quincy Adams, 75
Warner, Michael, [211n14][223n36]
Warren, Joyce W., [244n48]
Washington, George, 515161
Washingtonian and Organ,53
Waste Land, The (Eliot), [199n8]
wealth: greed, 39; middle class pursual of, 35; romanticization of, and gender, 30; “Sun-Down Papers” and suspicion of, 2728. See also class; middle-class values; working class
Weekly Freeman,68–70
Welter, Barbara, [244n45]
Western frontier, 40–41
“We Two Boys Together Clinging,” 137157[223n40]
“When I Heard at the Close of the Day,” 157
“When I peruse the conquered fame of heroes,” 151[233n31]
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd”: contractile impulse in, 59; dead vs. living, suffering of, 168169170175[239n33]; grief and, 155156158–159, 166–170; guilt in, 168170171; maternal figure in, 168–169, 171175[240n8]; omissions in, 155159165170[236nn5]7; prefiguration of, [229n14]; as self-referential, 156–157; sexual and emotional ambivalence toward male authority figures and, 157159–167, 169–171, [236n7]; symbolism of, 155158170–171; writing of, 159164[235n3] “When my mother was a girl” (“An Incident on Long Island Forty Years Ago”), 4–5, 6
Whigs, 3234
“Whispers of Heavenly Death,” 13
Whitestone, NY, 35
Whitman, Andrew (brother), 712–13; in Civil War, 170[239n36]; death of, 17–18, 170
Whitman, Edward (brother), 1213[200n23]; alcoholism of father and, 22; birth of, 7; shared room with WW, 113
Whitman, George Washington (brother), 71318[200n24]; in Civil War, xxii, 153–154, 164165; and mother, 9–11; silences of, 20; on sister Hannah, 118; Whitman's retreat to home of, xxiii
Whitman, Hannah (sister). See Heyde, Hannah Whitman
Whitman, Hannah Brush (grandmother), 21
Whitman, Jesse (brother), 711–12, 100nn22–23; and death of Andrew, 17–18; in poetry, 94–95
Whitman, Jesse (grandfather), 21[203n40]
Whitman, Louisa Orr (sister-in-law), xxiii
Whitman, Louisa Van Velsor (mother), fig. 3; appearance and character of, 6–9, 13–15, 113; attachment to WW,
Whitman, Louisa Van Velsor (continued) 9; as audience, xvi; in Civil War, 154164; death of, 13; and death of Walter Senior, 78; domesticity and, 215; financial dependence of, 810121318174[213n15]; friendships of, 9; on Heyde, 119[225n58]; idealization of, xviii–xix, 123691017[198n1]; and Lincoln assassination, 154–155; literacy of, 113[200n26]; loneliness of, 84; marriage of, 13; as muse, 12819185[201n33]; and name change to “Walt,” 7072–73, 74[213nn14–15]; pregnancies of, 1323; pretense and, 8–9; religion and, 17; revisionism of WW and, [198n1]; as storyteller, 16–7, 19; support of WW's work, 13113[200n26]; and work, 1113–15, 18. See also mothers
Whitman, Mary (sister). See Van Nostrand, Mary Whitman
Whitman, Mattie (Martha Mitchell, sister-in-law), 8918107[211n18][224nn42–43]
Whitman, Thomas Jefferson (“Jeff,” brother), 78; on attacks from “Yam” writers, [228n11]; correspondence of, 7071; and depression as family trait, [214n18]; independence of, 107–108; on Jesse, 12; and Lincoln, 163; marriage of, 107–108, [224nn42–43]; and mother, 7101213; New Orleans trip with, 54; in Pfaff's, 98; WW's attachment to, 107[211n18][223nn40–41], [224n43]
Whitman, Walt, figs. 4–13; as “Answerer,” 57162; appearance of, 245666128[231n24]; apprenticeship of, literary, 128; and art of indirection, 124; birth of, 713fig. 1; bravery as heart-courage, 137; children of, fictitious, 139[231n27]; coterie of, 75–76; as crank, 6162; death of, fig. 13caption; depression and mental health of, 7137197; egotism of, 129; erotic double-bind of, 96; feminization and (see feminization); as flawed, xv–xviii; as gentleman bachelor, 56–58, 65–67, [213n12]figs. 48; as “good gray poet,” 56; health of, xxii, xxiii, 1213153157[197nn19–20], fig. 11caption; hypermasculinity of, 5770–71; as intellectual, 134–135; jealousy of, xxiii; “lazy” persona of, 111828–29; legal triumph of, [205n51]; as misunderstood, 9697; name change to “Walt,” 66–67, 69–75, 74–75, [213nn14–15], [214n16]; as narcissist, 166[221n19]; persecution of, 150[235n41]; as “phallic choice,” 7879; presence of, [218nn2–3]; pretense and, 8–9; pseudonyms of, 2371; and religion, 22101168; “rough” persona of, xvi–xvii, 1856–58, 60668081–82, 107128[218n41]; sexuality of (see male-homoerotic desire; sexuality); shanty of, fig. 13; tactlessness of, 73–74; as talker, 111; theater, love of, 23155[235n2]; touch, ambivalence toward, 58596063; and work (see employment of WW); as wounddresser poet, xxii, 616280168185
Whitman, Walter Senior (father), fig. 2; alcoholism of, 22; alienation from, xix; appearance of, 7; birth of, 21[203n40]; class and, 21–22, [204n49]; death of, 78–79, 96[217n35]fig. 2; education and, 21; exclusion of, 131719–20; financial failures of, 1950[211n16]; and Hicks, 20–21, [202n37]; impersonation of, by WW, 107; marriage of, 13; mental health of, 202122; narrative of WW and, 11; and religion, [217n35]; work of, 131923[204n49]fig. 1. See also fathers
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 37
“Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand,” 150
“Who is now reading this?” 144150[233n31][234n39]
“Who Learns My Lesson Complete?” 13 Wilde, Oscar, [216n28]
“Wild Frank's Return,” 38–39, 40
Wilentz, Sean, [203n41]
Williams, John (maternal greatgrandfather), [199n6]
Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 1164
With Walt Whitman in Camden,[198n1]
Wolfe, Charles, [206n56]
Woman-Love poems. See Enfans d'Adam
“Woman Waits for Me, A” (“Poem of Procreation”), 190[228n11]
women: agency of, males and, 173179; athleticism of, 173182183190; as audience, 112186187–189, [212n7]; collapse of, into “Mother,” 172181–182; crime by, 39; education of, 192; exclusion of, 3536; irritated by WW, 28–29, 30; as muse, 169172; private vs. public power of, 191–192; prostitution, 130132135; race and roles of, 189; representation of, xix; respect for, claims to, 29112192[208n1][244n45]; roles of, in homoerotic
― 261 ―culture, 125; roles of, 169; romantic friendships of, [206n65]; single, sexuality and, 85114–115; suffrage of, 177; voice of, WW as, xvii–xix, 172173178–179, 182183–184, 186–187, 191–192. See also fathers; feminism; gender; men; mothers; sexism; Whitman, Louisa Van VelsorWoodbury, NY, 30–35
“Word out of the Sea, A.” See “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”
Wordsworth, William, 166[238n30]
working class: and body, control of, 97; and companion-type of WW, xx, xxii, xxiii, 61–63, 77–78, 79–80, 98134–135; and new male model, 137; “rough” persona of WW, xvi–xvii, 1856–58, 60668081–82, 107128[218n41]; suffrage of, in Britain, 175. See also class; middle-class values
working life. See employment of WW
Wright, Frances, 190[208n1]
Wright, Henry Clarke, 173
“Year of Meteors,” [227n5][238n29]
“You bards of ages hence!” 143–144, [233n34]
“Young America,” 74[215n25]
“Young Grimes,” 26
youth: apprenticeships and, [204n46]; romantic friendship and, [207n65]
Ziff, Larzer, [201n26]
Zweig, Paul, 96107