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Notes I n t roduc t ion 1. Kuebrich 1989:ix. While a number of religious interpretations of Whitman’s work were published soon after his death, Kuebrich’s Minor Prophecy was indeed the first major published scholarly study on Whitman from the religious studies perspective . Dale C. Hesser’s 1957 unpublished dissertation “The Religion of Walt Whitman” should be considered in fact the first extensive scholarly study (although not a published one) that has been carried out on this topic. 2. LGO 650. 3. WWP II:371. 4. “I will write the evangel . . .” “Starting from Paumanok,” 6; “Know you, solely . . .” “Starting form Paumanok,” 10. 5. “A Backward Glance O’er Travel’d Roads,” LGO, 484. 6. Zweig 1984:9. 7. Asselineau 1960:15. 8. Calamus 28. 9. Preface to the first edition of Leaves of Grass (1855), LGO, 636. 10. Blodgett 1934: 5. 11. Calamus 2. 12. Quoted in LGO 801. 13. WWC, I:371–372. 14. Zweig 1984:141. C h a p t e r on e — l i t e r at u r e a s r e l igion 1. WNU II 654–655. 2. See, for example, WWC VIII:420; Lozynsky 1977:11; Reynolds 1995:252, 257. 3. Manuscripts (92) 27. 4. WWC II: 368. 5. Reynolds 1995:257. 6. Asselineau 1960:211. 7. For a detailed introduction to the character and activities of Whitman’s inner circle disciples, see Michael Robertson, Worshipping Walt: The Whitman Disciples. 164 Walt Whitman’s Mystical Ethics of Comradeship Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2008. As for the language of his passionate disciples, the following, published in an Iowa newspaper in 1886 after a visit to the poet, offers a characteristic example: “Walt Whitman [,] the poet par excellence of the nineteenth century, the exponent of the millennial splendors and harmonies which greeted the prophetic vision of Holy John in the Patmian Isle; the interpreter and expounder of that which is to be, when the latter day glories of modern civilization and development have been brought to perfection, and science and poetry and religion shall have been blended into an intellectual trinity for the enlightenment and elevation of mankind.” Quoted in Myerson, 2000: 47. The paragraph expresses Whitman’s ideals, as well as his own idealized role, with such refined precision that the words sound suspiciously Whitman’s. 8. Holloway 1926:235. 9. TheConservator(1895),April,27;White1957:70.In1892thegroupadopted“The Walt Whitman Reunion Association” as its name (later to be changed to “The Walt Whitman Fellowship”). See The Walt Whitman Birthplace Bulletin (1958), January, 1(2):17. 10. WWC, I:63–64; II:37, 379; Knox:1976:24–26. 11. The Walt Whitman Birthplace Bulletin (1958) , October, (2):11–12; White 1957:71. Other short-lived Whitman societies were formed in the 1920s, such as The Sunrise Club (a branch of it) and The Whitman Society. See The Walt Whitman Birthplace Bulletin (1958), October, (2):16. 12. A quotation from Mildred Bain’s Horace Traubel (New York, 1913), 7, in White 1957:68. 13. For example, at the 1898 meeting, Traubel complained that of the 202 members in the organization 56 had refused to contribute, 100 had ignored his requests, and only 39 contributed. The following year the situation was even worse. White 1957:68. 14. For a compilation of journalistic articles by Whitman on the death penalty, see Rodgers 1920:97–120. 15. The Conservator (1906), Aug., 88; September, 106–107. 16. Krieg 1996:99. 17. Quoted in Schmidgall 2006:liii. See The Conservator (1919), June, 61. 18. Holloway 1926:235; Asselineau 1960:211; Allen 1975:370; Zweig 1984:344. 19. Holloway 1926:235. 20. Grünzweig 1995:187–198. 21. WWC I:74–79, 124, 202. 22. There is a solid consensus among recent scholars about this point. See, for exampleKaplan (1980:146–156),Zweig(1984:88–100),andReynolds(1995:236).Asselineauand others before him fail to see the full extent of the influence of the phrenological theories on Whitman’s mind (see, for example, Asselineau 1960:51–52; 1962:31, 115, 356). 23. Zweig 1984:90 24. Kaplan 1980:152. 25. For a good summary of Whitman’s massive self-advertising campaign, both in the form of anonymous contributions and under pseudonym, see Myerson, 2000: vii–xi. He even published, under pseudonym, an expanded account of a visit to himself. 26. Kaplan 1980:323. 27. See Bucke 1863:99. 28. Resnick 1948. 29. Holloway 1926:234. [3.15.218.254] Project MUSE (2024...

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