Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review“The originality of Klammer’s work lies in his bold argument that Whitman’s actual emergence as a great, original, innovative poet owed a great deal to his political thinking about the slavery question. This book argues convincingly that Whitman’s attitude toward African Americans passed through several phases that were closely related to the key political developments of the day relating to slavery. I have no doubt that it will mark a new phase in our understanding of Whitman’s attitudes towards African Americans.”
—M. Wynn Thomas,University of Wales at Swansea
“Martin Klammer has produced an excellent study of a central problem in Whitman criticism. No one has shown more clearly (indeed eloquently) the progressive development of Whitman’s ideas about slavery, with special emphasis on the connection between nineteenth-century political and social history and the evolution of Leaves of Grass. Blending history, biography, and literary criticism, Klammer’s analytical narrative displays scrupulous scholarship, but is never dry.”
—M. Jimmie Killingsworth,Texas A & M University
