The Journalism

«A major event in Whitman scholarship.» (Gay Wilson Allen, author of ‘The Solitary Singer: A Critical Biography of Walt Whitman’, ‘The New Walt Whitman Handbook’, and ‘A Reader’s Guide to Walt Whitman’)
«‘The Journalism’ is a landmark in Whitman scholarship. The journalism has been the missing link in Whitman studies. Up until now, we have had only scattered, incomplete, and unreliable gatherings of Whitman’s newspaper writings, usually in books that are now difficult to find. Particularly in an era of cultural studies, Whitman’s journalism contains arguably some of his most important writing, offering a wealth of reactions to the major and minor events of his time. ‘The Journalism’ is meticulously edited and generously annotated. It meets the high standards of the other volumes in ‘The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman’, of which the journalism is an essential part.» (Ed Folsom, University of Iowa, editor of ‘Walt Whitman Quarterly Review’; author of ‘Walt Whitman’s Native Representations’; co-editor of ‘Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song’)
«Walt Whitman’s journalism is both the substrate and forcing-bed of ‘Leaves of Grass’. It’s good to see that this material is at last gathered and published with the thoroughness and high editorial standards it deserves.» (Justin Kaplan, author of ‘Walt Whitman: A Life and Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain’ (winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award); editor of ‘The Library of America Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose’)
«This volume of Walt Whitman’s journalism will be considered a great event by all Whitman scholars and also by many readers of his poetry, for most of the texts it contains are inaccessible and yet far from negligible. This is the soil in which Whitman’s grass slowly germinated and from which it suddenly spouted in 1855. Not only is the reader supplied with captivating materials, but the scholar finds impeccably edited documents, for the texts have been scrupulously established and all the variants and textual emendations carefully listed. The editors have also explained in very precise notes all the historical and literary allusions which might – and very often would – puzzle the reader... To cap it all, a marvelously detailed index makes this book an ideal researcher’s tool.» (Roger Asselineau, University of Paris-Sorbonne, author of ‘The Evolution of Walt Whitman’, 2 volumes; and co-editor of ‘Walt Whitman and Europe Today’)