4 Whitman and Dickinson

Historical and biographical scholarship remains the focus of Whitman studies, with a number of new monographs, collections, articles, and chapters that consider the poet's life and works within various contexts. Of special interest are discussions of Whitman and music, commentary on the political Whitman, and new treatments of gender and sexuality. In Dickinson scholarship, after a number of years dominated by bibliographical work and textual criticism we see a resurgence of critical studies on a broader range of topics. Biographical and historical studies remain prominent, but also apparent is renewed interest in religion and spirituality in Dickinson's work, a topic addressed in three new monographs and several essays. In addition, there are important new essays on Dickinson's poetics.

i Walt Whitman

a. Bibliography and Editing

Continuing as one of the brightest lights in Whitman studies is "Walt Whitman: A Current Bibliography," published by editor Ed Folsom in each issue of WWQR(17: 132–39, 199–206; 18: 93– 99). Known for its thoroughness and dependable annotations, it also appears in a usable online version reformatted as an annual bibliography.

Following another tradition of WWQR, Folsom devotes a considerable number of this year's pages to newly discovered and previously unpublished or uncollected texts. In a typical item, which includes text and brief commentary, Ted Genoways presents Whitman's correspondence with a well-known British wood-engraver and poet in "Two Unpublished Letters: Walt Whitman to William James Linton, March 14 and April 11, 1872" (WWQR 17: 189–93). In a special double issue of the journal entitled "Discoveries" (WWQR 18) which includes illustrations and excellent commentaries by some of the best Whitman bibliographers, Genoways appears again as editor of "The Correspondence of Walt Whitman: A Third Supplement with Addenda to the Calendar of Letters Written to Whitman" (pp. 3–59). Further contributions to the double issue are Folsom's "Whitman's Notes on Emerson: An Unpublished Manuscript" (pp. 60–62) and "'Till the Simple Religious Idea': An Unpublished Whitman Manuscript Fragment" (pp. 63–64); Martin G. Murray's "Walt Whitman on Brother George and His Fifty-first New York Volunteers: An Uncollected New York Times Article" (pp. 65–70); Ed Folsom and Kendall Reed's "An Unpublished Specimen Days Manuscript Fragment" (pp. 71–72); Gary Schmidgall's "1855: A Stop-Press Revision," which reports a rare variant in the 1855 Leaves (pp. 73–75); Kenneth M. Price and Charles B. Green's "Two Uncollected Early Reviews of the 1855 and 1856 Editions of Leaves of Grass, " which includes a brief anonymous mention by George Eliot (pp. 76–80); Todd Richardson's "The 'Strong Man' at Dartmouth College: Two Uncollected Parodies of Whitman's 'As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free' " (pp. 81–84); Joel Myerson's "Two Unrecorded Notices of Whitman in 1888," which reprints a favorable poem about Whitman and an appreciative biography of the poet for young readers (pp. 85–90); and Donald Edge's "Whitman in Camden City Directories, 1877–1892" (pp. 91–92). In another venue appears Genoways's " 'Fish, Fishermen, and Fishing, on the East End of Long Island': An Excerpt from Walt Whitman's Uncollected Serial 'Letters from a Travelling Young Bachelor' " (Shenandoah 50: 49–56).

Biographical and historical scholarship benefits from two new resources edited by Joel Myerson. The more significant is Walt Whitman: A Documentary Volume (DLB 224). No single volume contains a more complete representative picture of how Whitman and his contemporaries viewed the poet's place in 19th-century literary culture. Selections from Whitman's autobiographical writings, journalism, and anonymous self-reviews are included alongside American and British reviews of Leaves of Grass and comments on Whitman's poetry by such figures as William Dean Howells, Henry James, Edmund Gosse, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and George Santayana. To balance the "high cultural" perspective of these commentators, Myerson reprints a fine essay by Ed Folsom that takes the measure of Whitman's reputation by surveying 19th-century literary textbooks, anthologies, and handbooks. Folsom's analysis reveals that "the contemporary critical response to Whitman was not nearly as negative" as Whitman himself and later...