Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Literary historian Reynolds's biography of Whitman examines the poet within the broader social and cultural context of 19th-century America. (Mar.)
Library Journal
Whitman, the Good Gray Poet, was born into a time when slavery and the new market economy had just begun to transform the nation. Reynolds (Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville, LJ 4/15/88) endeavors to be "historically correct rather than politically correct" in examining this period and its players, and he succeeds. Weaving together primary and secondary historical sources, he reveals the diverse influences on the poet of politics, society, literary and cultural trends, science, and religion. Whitman's complex views on race and slavery, his "omnisexuality," and his conflict between conservatism and radicalism, for example, are better understood in this complete context. Whether as journalist, sensationalist, fiction writer, or poet, Whitman comes across as "a writer for all times," focusing on the pulse of the nation and socially significant causes that span centuries: prison reform, women's rights, democracy, and individualism. A highly readable, well-researched cultural history of the period. [BOMC selection.]-Cathy Sabol, Northern Virginia Community Coll., Manassas
From the Publisher
"Remarkably informative...I marked on page after page things about Whitman and his America I never knew before."
—Alfred Kazin, The New York Times Book Review
"Exhaustive...fascinating...an evocative portrait."
—Washington Post Book World
"Reynolds stands alone in showing, almost day by day, the finest roots of Whitman's genius...His scholarship lights Whitman from within."
—Philadelphia Inquirer
