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02-20-2017, 05:42 PM
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Whitman novel rediscovered
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02-20-2017, 06:21 PM
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
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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!
__________________
Ralph
Last edited by RCL; 02-20-2017 at 07:13 PM.
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02-20-2017, 07:06 PM
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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.”
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02-20-2017, 07:24 PM
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Oh, boy!
This thread will contain multitudes.
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02-21-2017, 08:21 AM
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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.
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02-21-2017, 06:19 PM
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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.
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02-21-2017, 11:18 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2001
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The autobiography of Frank Harris will tell you more that you need to know about late Victorian/Edwardian sexual mores.
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02-22-2017, 12:23 AM
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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."]
Last edited by Julie Steiner; 02-23-2017 at 09:59 AM.
Reason: added link; deleted bits; added note; JS added text
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