Description
Book SynopsisTells the rags-to-riches story of Franklin Evans, an innocent young man from the Long Island countryside who seeks his fortune in New York City. Corrupted by music halls, theatres, and above all taverns, he gradually becomes a drunkard.
Trade Review“Christopher Castiglia and Glenn Hendler provide a truly state-of-the-art introduction to Walt Whitman’s only novel, a lively and thorough account of the varied contexts that best illuminate the significance of Whitman’s rough and rowdy tale.”—Michael Moon, author of
Disseminating Whitman: Revision and Corporeality in Leaves of Grass
“Readers interested primarily in the social history of the country will find much here that is compelling. The temperance movement was the first wide-spread social reform movement in the United States, and the novel’s greatest claim to interest from a wider readership comes from what it reveals about that movement. . . . [T]here are also glimpses of the young poet’s developing voice. The novel reveals a belief in the power of words to change the lives and influence the actions of individual readers, most of whom would have come from the working class. Joined with more original language, this conviction would give
Leaves of Grass, written a decade later, its passion and force.” -- Kim Roberts * White Crane Journal *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
I. Franklin Evans, or the Inebriate
A Tale of the Times 1
II. Supplementary Texts
The Madman 117
The Child and the Profligate 123
An Address Delivered by Abraham Lincoln Before the Springfield Washingtonian Temperance Society, at the Second Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Illinois, On the 22nd Day of February, 1842 135
Bibliography 145
