Walt Whitman
Be Compassionate.
Be Bold. Be Creative.
Be in Camden.
Walt Whitman, Camden's Favorite Son
Click to enlarge
Walt Whitman lived and is buried in Camden
Photo by THOMAS EAKINS
American, 18441916
Walt Whitman in Camden,
New Jersey, 1887
camdennewjersey.org
Mt. St. Mary's College in Los Angeles offers two day course, devoted to studying one of the most important texts in all of American literature. By studying Whitman's life, his writings, his contemporaries, and his critics, we will hope to gain insight into this fascinating man, along with the book he wrote that changed the way poetry was written.
Walt Whitman Center Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected.
| The
Walt Whitman Archive Friends of Walt Whitman on the Internet the poet’s spirits improved as he warmed to Camden and found ways to turn a struggling town into a supportive social environment. Among Camden’s advantages was its proximity to Philadelphia, a city with a thriving intellectual and artistic community.Whitmans Biography |
"In a Dream, I saw a
City Invincible."
Come to Camden. Walt Whitman needs you to
help make his dream come true.
Poetry and Prose Page
......virtual transcript of the daily
conversations between Whitman and Traubel,
describing Whitman's thoughts and opinions, the arrivals and departures of
visitors
from all over the world, articles and letters he received and wrote, and
hundreds of details of his life on Mickle Street in
Camden.
The great poems of heaven have already been written. But what of the earth? See
your old place in new ways; ascending, asserting, extending, becoming, being..
"The United States themselves
are essentially the greatest poem"
-Walt Whitman
Snapshots of
Ferry Ave, Whitmans Tomb
Audio: "Ah Poverties, Wincings and Sulky Retreats, read by Garrison Keilor June 9 2002 on National Public Radio
May 20, Sunday, NY Times: Offered for sale, an 1882 edition of Leaves
of Grass, written in Camden New Jersey, signed by the author. Available at
BaumanRareBooks.com 1-800-99-Bauman
$8,500.00 Includes "Sexuality Odes": The edition suppressed and
"banned in Boston."
"What is the "city-ness" of a city?"
Walt Whitman's House
"Camden was
originally an accident, but I shall never be sorry I
was left over in Camden. It has brought me blessed returns."
Tomb is across the street from Ferry Ave. High Speed Line Station
Click on the images
Walt Whitman House is a national historic landmark providing an intimate
glimpse into the life of the famous American poet.
It is here that Whitman completed his most notable work, "Leaves of
Grass." Original letters and other personal belongings are on display.
Walt Whitman House is located at 328 Mickle Boulevard, Camden, NJ.
Without Walt Whitman, there is no such thing as an internationally recognized
and respected "American Literature."
All American literature ( in the sense of celebrating, promoting
democracy and American individualism) derives directly from Whitman.
(Walt Whitman wrote the final edition of "Leaves of Grass" in
Camden New Jersey, where he lived the last twenty years of his life. You can
tour his house and grave-site in Camden )
Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" are
the incomparable poems of one of America's greatest poets-an exuberant,
passionate man who loved his country and wrote of it as no other has done,
before or since.
Singer, thinker, visionary, and citizen extraordinaire, this
was Walt Whitman. Thoreau called Whitman "probably" the greatest
democrat that ever lived," and Emerson judged Leaves
of Grass as " the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom
America has yet contributed." (And since Thoreau's time, no one yet has
come close.)
Walt Whitman needs and wants you to help rebuild and revitalize the city that was so dear to his heart. ( Walt was a carpenter you know, and would be right along side you pounding nails if he could.) Become a part of the movement to rebuild Camden. If you are wondering what Walt would want you to do, just look under your boot-soles and ask.
Walt Whitman is buried in Harleigh Cemetery, across the street from the Ferry Ave. High Speed Line (PATCO) station. His grave site is approximately 10 minutes from the Philadelphia City Hall / Independence Hall / Liberty Bell/ Ben Franklins Grave and the house where Thomas Jefferson wrote the final draft of The Declaration of Independence / area by PATCO high speed line. Trains leave to and from approximately every ten minutes.
About Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Whitman, Walt (1819-1892), American poet, whose
work boldly asserts the worth of the individual and
the oneness of all humanity. Whitman's defiant break
with traditional poetic concerns and style exerted a major
influence on American thought and literature.
Walt Whitman wrote the last edition of "Leaves of Grass" in the city he loved, Camden New Jersey, where he chose to live out the last decades of his life.
Walt Whitman also inspired two other famous New Jersey writers,
 | William Carlos Williams |
| Allen Ginsberg |
as well as many others around the world. Today, Whitman's poetry has been translated into every major
language. It is widely recognized as a formative influence on the work of such American writers as Hart Crane, William Carlos
Williams, Allen Ginsberg, and Wallace Stevens. Many modern
scholars have sought to assess Whitman's life and literary
career. Works such as the 5-volume edition of his
correspondence (1961-1969) and the 16-volume definitive
edition of his Collected Writings (1963-1980) provide a
balanced view of his achievements.
Many writers have been called timeless, but Walt Whitman
deserves this description in a special way. He invented himself in
1855 with a slim volume of poetry, 'Leaves of Grass,' that seemed to have come from nowhere and connected to nothing else that
was being written at that time or any other.
The poems were about himself, plain and simple, especially the ecstatic 'Song Of Myself,'
which celebrated the explosive joy of living inside a human body. The poems were as sexually frank as diary entries, and the
rhythms of the words took 'free verse' to a new threshold; it was as if meter and rhyme had never existed.
Walter Whitman (he chose to become 'Walt' when he became a writer) was born of Quaker parentage on May 31, 1819 in West
Hills near Huntington, Long Island. He was taught in various Long Island schools and worked for several newspapers, including the
Brooklyn Eagle. He published some of his writings, but by his
mid-thirties had still not displayed the slightest hint of his
unique talent and vision. He published 'Leaves of Grass' himself in 1855.
He mailed a copy to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who immediately
recognized the book's unusual worth and wrote Whitman a letter
with the famous line so many writers have since wished to hear: "I greet you at the beginning of a great career."
Whitman was enormously affected by the Civil War, and published a series of wartime poems under the title 'Drum-Taps.' These
poems, like many others, were eventually folded into 'Leaves of Grass,' which Whitman added to throughout his life, publishing
nine different editions. By the end of his life Whitman was a tremendous literary celebrity.
In the 20th Century the example of his unhinged poetic rhythms provided Allen Ginsberg the only voice
that could speak the words of 'Howl.'
Whitman died on March 26, 1892 in Camden, New Jersey, and is buried
there.
_______________________________________________________________
In 1855 Whitman issued the first of many editions of Leaves of
Grass, a volume of poetry in a new kind of versification, far
different from his sentimental rhymed verse of the 1840s.
Because he immodestly praised the human body and glorified
the senses, Whitman was forced to publish the book at his own
expense, setting some of the type himself. His name did not
appear on the title page, but the engraved frontispiece portrait
shows him posed, arms akimbo, in shirt sleeves, hat cocked at a rakish angle.
In a long preface he announced a new
democratic literature, "commensurate with a people," simple
and unconquerable, written by a new kind of poet who was
affectionate, brawny, and heroic and who would lead by the
force of his magnetic personality.
Whitman spent the rest of his life striving to become that poet.
The 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass contained 12 untitled
poems, written in long cadenced lines that resemble the
unrhymed verse of the King James Version of the Bible. The
longest and generally considered the best, later entitled "Song
of Myself," was a vision of a symbolic "I" enraptured by the
senses, vicariously embracing all people and places from the
Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. No other poem in the first edition
has the power of this poem, although "The Sleepers," another
visionary flight, symbolizing life, death, and rebirth, comes
nearest.
Stimulated by the letter of congratulations from the eminent New
England essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, Whitman hastily put together another edition of Leaves of Grass (1856),
with revisions and additions; he would continue to revise the
collection throughout his life. The most significant 1856 poem is
"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," in which the poet vicariously joins
his readers and all past and future ferry passengers. In the
third edition (1860), Whitman began to give his poetry a more
allegorical structure. In "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," a
mockingbird (the voice of nature) teaches a little boy (the future
poet) the meaning of death.
Italian opera, of which Whitman was extremely fond, strongly influenced the music of this poem.
Two new clusters of poems, "Children of Adam" and "Calamus,"
deal with sexual love and male friendship.
Drum-Taps (1865, later added to the 1867 edition of Leaves)
reflects Whitman's deepening awareness of the significance of
the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the hope for
reconciliation between North and South. Sequel to Drum-Taps
(1866) contains "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,"
the great elegy for President Abraham Lincoln, and one of
Whitman's most popular works, "O Captain! My
Captain!" "Passage to India" (1871) used modern
communications and transportation as symbols for its
transcendent vision of the union of East and West and of the
soul with God.
Finally, in 1881, Whitman arranged his poems to his
satisfaction, but he continued to add new poems to the various
editions of Leaves of Grass until the final version was produced in 1892. A posthumous cluster, "Old Age Echoes," appeared in
1897. All of his poems were included in the definitive "Reader's Edition" of Leaves of Grass (1965), edited by Harold W.
Blodgett and Sculley Bradley.
During the Civil War Whitman ministered to wounded soldiers
in Union army hospitals in Washington, D.C. He remained there,
working as a government clerk, until 1873, when he suffered a
stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He then went to live with
his brother George in Camden, New
Jersey, until 1884, when he bought his own house. He lived there, writing and revising
Leaves of Grass, despite failing health, until his death. In his later years Whitman also wrote some prose of lasting value.
The essays in Democratic Vistas (1871)
are now considered a
classic discussion of the theory of democracy and its
possibilities. The collection Specimen Days and Collect (1882)
contains his earliest recollections, descriptions of the war years
and of the assassination of Lincoln, and nature notes written in
old age.
Camden, New Jersey, began systematically recording his daily conversations with
his friend, Walt Whitman. He continued for four years, until Whitman's death in
1892, amassing a lovingly detailed record whose accuracy, fidelity, and immediacy
remain unsurpassed in the history of biography.
Volumes 8 & 9 of With Walt Whitman in Camden present a firsthand account of
the final year of Whitman's life. Like the previous volumes in the series, they are a
virtual transcript of the daily conversations between Whitman and Traubel,
describing Whitman's thoughts and opinions, the arrivals and departures of visitors
from all over the world, articles and letters he received and wrote, and hundreds of details of his life on Mickle Street in
Camden.
Traubel was able to publish only three volumes of his planned series before his death in 1919. Since then, a succession of
editors has continued his massive project. One by one, four further volumes were made available to the public, but of these, all
but Volume 7 are now out of print and have become rarities, seen only occasionally on library shelves and in booksellers
catalogs.
These final two volumes mark the long-awaited completion of "the most truthful biography in the language." Nevertheless, they
stand easily on their own, giving the reader direct access to some of the most poignant, moving moments in the poet's life.
With Walt Whitman in Camden, Volumes 8 & 9
by Horace Traubel
VOL. 8: 636 pp, hardbound, photographs
VOL. 9: 676 pp, hardbound, photographs
$99.50 (Two-volume set)
SET ISBN 0-9653415-4-2
Available only from the Publishers:
W L BENTLEY RARE BOOKS
PO Box 887 - Oregon House, CA 95962
VOICE: (530) 692-0150 - FAX: (530) 692-0152 camdennewjersey.org
E-MAIL: wlbbooks@wlbentley.com
" Planning should not be an elitist process in which people "are told what's best for them," in his words; rather, it should be shaped by the people who will be living with its results."-
Tom Knoche