Walt Whitman’s America (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: David S. Reynolds
- First Published: 1995
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1819-1892
- Setting: Long Island, Brooklyn, and Manhattan; New Orleans; and Camden, New Jersey
- Principal Characters: Walt Whitman, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, Walter Whitman, Abraham Lincoln
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Nineteenth century, Literature, Poetry or poets, Alcoholism or alcoholics, Substance abuse
- Locales: Manhattan, NY, New Orleans, LA, Brooklyn, NY, Long Island, NY, New Jersey
Nearly everyone familiar with the field of American literary criticism would instantly recognize the name David S. Reynolds. His previous book Beneath the American Renaissance (1988) was widely praised and won the Christian Gauss Award. In that pioneering study, he explored the often piquant relationship between American antebellum writers and the sensationalism of the emerging mass media. Authors such as Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Emily Dickinson seized upon the bizarre imagery and radical democracy of nineteenth century popular culture in order to create what...
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