Notes on Contributors ix
List of Illustrations xiv
Abbreviations of Standard Whitman Works xvi
Introduction 1
Donald D. Kummings
Part I: The Life 9
1 Whitman's Life and Work, 1819–92 11
Gregory Eiselein
Part II: The Cultural Context 27
2 Journalism 29
Douglas A. Noverr
3 The City 42
William Pannapacker
4 Labor and Laborers 60
M. Wynn Thomas
5 Politics 76
Gary Wihl
6 Oratory 87
J. R. LeMaster
7 Slavery and Race 101
Martin Klammer
8 Nation and Identity 122
Eldrid Herrington
9 A Theory of Organic Democracy 136
Stephen John Mack
10 Imperialism 151
Walter Grunzweig
11 Sexuality 164
Maire Mullins
12 Gender 180
Sherry Ceniza
13 Religion and the Poet-Prophet 197
David Kuebrich
14 Science and Pseudoscience 216
Harold Aspiz
15 Nineteenth-century Popular Culture 233
Brett Barney
16 Opera and Other Kinds of Music 257
Kathy Rugoff
17 Nineteenth-century Visual Culture 272
Ed Folsom
18 Civil War 290
Luke Mancuso
19 Nature 311
M. Jimmie Killingsworth
20 Death and the Afterlife 325
William J. Scheick
21 Twentieth-century Mass Media Appearances 341
Andrew Jewell and Kenneth M. Price
Part III: The Literary Context 359
22 Language 361
Tyler Hoffman
23 Style 377
James Perrin Warren
24 Literary Contemporaries 392
Joann P. Krieg
25 The Publishing History of Leaves of Grass 409
Amanda Gailey
26 The Poet's Reception and Legacy 439
Andrew C. Higgins
Part IV: Texts 455
Works of Poetry 456
27 The First (1855) Edition of Leaves of Grass 457
Edward Whitley
28 "Song of Myself" 471
Kerry C. Larson
29 "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" 484
James Dougherty
30 "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" 496
Howard Nelson
31 "Live Oak, with Moss," "Calamus," and "Children of Adam" 508
Steven Olsen-Smith
32 Civil War Poems in "Drum-Taps" and "Memories of President Lincoln" 522
Ted Genoways
Prose Works 539
33 Democratic Vistas 540
Robert Leigh Davis
34 Specimen Days 553
Martin G. Murray
35 The Prose Writings: Selected Secondary Sources 566
Donald D. Kummings
Index 588