Walt Whitman's Native Representations [Paperback]

This 1994 book investigates how the development of phenomena such as American dictionaries, baseball, American Indian policy and photography shaped Whitman's democratic poetics.Walt Whitman looked to many different areas of American culture to develop a distinctively American poetry. This book investigates four of the areas he found most fertile for his own poetic development: the evolution of American dictionaries, the growth of the national sport of baseball, the decimation of American Indians, and the development of American photography. From each of these cultural activities, Whitman absorbed key aesthetic lessons that helped him compose his poetry.Walt Whitman looked to many different areas of American culture to develop a distinctively American poetry. This book investigates four of the areas he found most fertile for his own poetic development: the evolution of American dictionaries, the growth of the national sport of baseball, the decimation of American Indians, and the development of American photography. From each of these cultural activities, Whitman absorbed key aesthetic lessons that helped him compose his poetry.Walt Whitman looked to many different areas of American culture to develop a distinctively American poetry. This book investigates four of the areas he found most fertile for his own poetic development: the evolution of American dictionaries, the growth of the national sport of baseball, the decimation of American Indians, and the development of American photography. From each of these cultural activities, Whitman absorbed key aesthetic lessons that helped him compose his poetry.Preface: Walt Whitman and &; Acknowledgements; Introduction: 'Wording the future'; 1. Whitman and dictionaries; 2. Whitman and baseball; 3. Whitman and American Indians; 4. Whitman and photography; 5. Whitman and photographs of the self. Ed Folsom has written a fine book that adds significantly to our knowledge of Walt Whitman's relationship to his times. Folsom provil£5