Walt Whitman's Western Jaunt

In 1879, when Walt Whitman was sixty, he made a trip to the West—first to Kansas to attend the quartercentennial celebration of Kansas settlement, then on to Denver and the Rockies. Biographers have only briefly reported this trip, if they have dealt with it at all; here for the first time is a thor...

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Main Author: Eitner, Walter H.
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: University Press of Kansas 2022
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Online Access:ONIX_20221025_9780700630882_4
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author Eitner, Walter H.
author_browse Eitner, Walter H.
author_facet Eitner, Walter H.
author_sort Eitner, Walter H.
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description In 1879, when Walt Whitman was sixty, he made a trip to the West—first to Kansas to attend the quartercentennial celebration of Kansas settlement, then on to Denver and the Rockies. Biographers have only briefly reported this trip, if they have dealt with it at all; here for the first time is a thorough reconstruction of Whitman’s western experience. From his own extensive research in newspapers of the period, as well as from Whitman’s published daybooks and notebooks and his collected correspondence. Walter H. Eitner is able to piece together a well detailed itinerary, and to compare the record of the actual journey with Whitman’s imaginative account in Specimen Days.This study in part constitutes a criticism of the sections of Specimen Days dealing with the West by examining the ways in which Whitman reordered his experiences to have them support a bardic pose he wished to maintain. For the first time Whitman’s three journalist traveling companions—whom Whitman did not even mention in Specimen Days—are fully on record. This account also shows Whitman very much his own press agent, engaging in a wide range of selfpromoting activities such as writing his own interviews and sending back to the press in the East accounts of his whereabouts, his health, and his plans.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-931502024-04-02T22:11:59Z Walt Whitman's Western Jaunt Eitner, Walter H. History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas In 1879, when Walt Whitman was sixty, he made a trip to the West—first to Kansas to attend the quartercentennial celebration of Kansas settlement, then on to Denver and the Rockies. Biographers have only briefly reported this trip, if they have dealt with it at all; here for the first time is a thorough reconstruction of Whitman’s western experience. From his own extensive research in newspapers of the period, as well as from Whitman’s published daybooks and notebooks and his collected correspondence. Walter H. Eitner is able to piece together a well detailed itinerary, and to compare the record of the actual journey with Whitman’s imaginative account in Specimen Days.This study in part constitutes a criticism of the sections of Specimen Days dealing with the West by examining the ways in which Whitman reordered his experiences to have them support a bardic pose he wished to maintain. For the first time Whitman’s three journalist traveling companions—whom Whitman did not even mention in Specimen Days—are fully on record. This account also shows Whitman very much his own press agent, engaging in a wide range of selfpromoting activities such as writing his own interviews and sending back to the press in the East accounts of his whereabouts, his health, and his plans. 2022-10-25T08:59:41Z 2022-10-25T08:59:41Z 1981 book ONIX_20221025_9780700630882_4 9780700630882 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/93150 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://muse.jhu.edu/book/81022 University Press of Kansas 10.1353/book.81022 10.1353/book.81022 d6fe0229-a31d-4b33-87fc-38cc16caac43 9780700630882 140 open access
spellingShingle History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
Eitner, Walter H.
Walt Whitman's Western Jaunt
title Walt Whitman's Western Jaunt
title_full Walt Whitman's Western Jaunt
title_fullStr Walt Whitman's Western Jaunt
title_full_unstemmed Walt Whitman's Western Jaunt
title_short Walt Whitman's Western Jaunt
title_sort walt whitman s western jaunt
topic History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
topic_facet History of the Americas
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas
url ONIX_20221025_9780700630882_4
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