In 1855, Walt Whitman (1819-1892), native of Huntington, Long Island, published in Brooklyn a slim, grass-green, clothbound volume of poetry titled Leaves of Grass.
The frontispiece carried no author’s name, but rather, an engraving from a daguerreotype of a rustic-looking author. Whitman introduced the verse with a prose preface, heralding his bold theories.
In the first line of poetry, he announced, “I celebrate myself”–many verses later, he promised, “I stop somewhere, waiting for you.” Between those two statements, Whitman inaugurated a revolution in American poetry.
He continued revising and adding poems to the volume throughout the rest of his long, full life, culminating in 1891, with the publication of what is generally referred to by the rather unfortunate title “The Deathbed Edition” of Leaves of Grass.
Dr. Lynch will read and discuss excerpts from the first edition as well as several of the later works, including excerpts from Calumus, Drum-Taps, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, and Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking.
Vivian Valvano Lynch, Ph.D. (Stonybrook University) is Professor Emerita, St. John’s University. She is the author of a book on author William Kennedy and numerous critical essays, book reviews and conference presentations on James Joyce, Irish literature, and Irish-American literature.
Manhasset Public Library, April 21
