Book
"The million dead, too, summ'd up": Walt Whitman's Civil War writings
Iowa Whitman series, University of Iowa Press
2021
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv1fx4hcd
Appears in Recent Books by UI Authors
Abstract
This book is the first to offer a comprehensive selection of Walt Whitman’s Civil War poetry and prose with a full commentary on each work. Ed Folsom and Christopher Merrill carry on a dialogue with Whitman (and with each other) as they invite readers to trace how Whitman’s writing about the Civil War develops, shifts, and manifests itself in different genres throughout the years of the war. The book offers forty selections of Whitman’s war writings, including not only the well-known war poems but also his prose and personal letters. Each are followed by Folsom’s critical examination and then by Merrill’s afterword, suggesting broader contexts for thinking about the selection.
The real democratic reader, Whitman said, “must himself or herself construct indeed the poem, argument, history, metaphysical essay—the text furnishing the hints, the clue, the start or frame-work,” because what is needed for democracy to flourish is “a nation of supple and athletic minds.” Folsom and Merrill model this kind of active reading and encourage both seasoned and new readers of Whitman’s war writings to enter into the challenging and exhilarating mode of talking back to Whitman, arguing with him, and learning from him.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- "The million dead, too, summ'd up": Walt Whitman's Civil War writings
- Creators
- Walt WhitmanEd FolsomChristopher Merrill
- Resource Type
- Book
- Series
- Iowa Whitman series
- DOI
- 10.2307/j.ctv1fx4hcd
- ISBN
- 1609387465; 9781609387464; 9781609387471; 1609387473
- eISBN
- 9781609387471; 1609387473
- Publisher
- University of Iowa Press; Iowa City
- Number of pages
- vii, 227 pages
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2021
- Academic Unit
- International Writing Program; International Programs; English
- Record Identifier
- 9984398738902771
Metrics
47 Record Views