[R. S. Gwynn]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/a...e=sectionfront

[RCL]

A part of Emerson's response to reading the first edition of Leaves of Grass--though I doubt he suspected all that prose in Whitman's "foreground":

I greet you at the beginning of a great career, which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere, for such a start. I rubbed my eyes a little, to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is a sober certainty. It has the best merits, namely, of fortifying and encouraging.

Emerson was very annoyed when Whitman quickly released another edition with the first sentence printed on its cover!

[Michael F]

I think I recall reading that Whitman continually revised “Leaves of Grass” almost to his death. Not sure I’ll go in for reading the novel, but I got a chuckle out of this on his juvenilia:

“My serious wish,” he wrote in 1882, “were to have all those crude and boyish pieces quietly dropp’d in oblivion.” In 1891, when a critic was planning on republishing some of his early tales, he was blunt: “I should almost be tempted to shoot him if I had an opportunity.”

[William A. Baurle]

Oh, boy!

This thread will contain multitudes.

[R. S. Gwynn]

I skimmed Franklin Evans last night. Very curious piece of work. WW said he got $75 up front and another $50 a month or so later. It's online.

[William A. Baurle]

I'm going to take a look around and see if I can download something or at least read a chunk of one of Whitman's novels. I had no idea he wrote so many. I had no idea he wrote any at all. I always thought of him as journalist turned poet. I knew he wrote formal poetry, but was in the dark about his stories and novels.

Didn't Mark Twain write a naughty novel? I believe he said something like, "If there's a single decent sentence in there, it was an accident."

The Victorian age was steeped in erotica written by who knows. I've read a few of those novels, one which is particularly famous. I couldn't get through all of it. This man was seriously twisted. I can only wonder who he was. The prose was excellent. I'll see if I can locate the title.

[R. S. Gwynn]

The autobiography of Frank Harris will tell you more that you need to know about late Victorian/Edwardian sexual mores.

[William A. Baurle]

Found the whole dang thing online [link posted, but now removed at Bill's request]. Am reading it now. Well, reading a bit of it, then going back to here, then back to it...

Thanks!

[Julie Steiner says: Bill's having technical difficulties and is unable to edit this post, so I've added this bit, which he sent me by PM, regarding the Frank Harris book: "Since I NOW know that the book was written by a thrill-seeking hedonist with absolutely so self-restraint, I'm no longer interested in reading the book."]