Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman: A Literary Life highlights two major influences on Whitmans poetry and life: the American Civil War and his economic condition. Linda Wagner-Martin performs a close reading of many of Whitmans poems, particularly his Civil War work (in Drum-Taps) and those poems written during the last twenty years of his life. Wagner-Martins study also emphasizes the near-poverty that Whitman experienced. Starting with his early career as a printer and journalist, the book moves to the publication of Leaves of Grass, and his cultivation of the persona of the working-class writer. In addition to establishing Whitmans attention to the Civil War through journalism and memoirs, the book takes the approach of following Whitmans life through his poems. Utilizing contemporary perspectives on class, Wagner-Martin provides a new reading of Whitmans economic situation. This is an accessibly written synthesis of Whitmans publication history bringing attention to under-studied aspects of his writing.