Walt Whitman's lectures on Abraham Lincoln

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The cover for a program from one of the deliveries of Walt Whitman's lecture on Abraham Lincoln Walt Whitman on Abraham Lincoln (1886 lecture flyer) black & white.png
The cover for a program from one of the deliveries of Walt Whitman's lecture on Abraham Lincoln

The American poet Walt Whitman gave a lecture on Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, several times between 1879 and 1890. The lecture centered on the assassination of Lincoln, but also covered years leading up to and during the American Civil War and often included readings of poems such as "O Captain! My Captain!". The deliveries were generally well received, and cemented Whitman's public image as an authority on Lincoln.

Contents

Whitman greatly admired Lincoln and was moved by his assassination in 1865 to write several poems in the President's memory. The idea of a lecture on the topic was first proposed by his friend John Burroughs in an 1878 letter. Whitman, who had long aspired to be a lecturer, first spoke on the death of Lincoln in New York City's Steck Hall on April 14 the following year. Over the next eleven years, he delivered the lecture at least ten, and possibly as many as twenty, more times.

Many deliveries of the lecture were part of a broader speaker series or fundraising events. A delivery of the lecture in 1887 at Madison Square Theatre is considered the most successful presentation. Whitman's biographer Justin Kaplan writes that this delivery and the reception that followed was the closest Whitman came to "social eminence on a large scale", [1] as it was attended by many prominent members of American society. Whitman later described that lecture and reception as "the culminating hour" of his life, [1] but at another time criticized it as "too much the New York Jamboree". [2] He gave the lecture for the last time in Philadelphia in 1890, two years before his death.

Background

Walt Whitman, steel engraving, July 1854.jpg
Abraham Lincoln by Von Schneidau, 1854.jpg
Whitman (left) and Lincoln (right), c. 1854, when they were 35 and 45 years old, respectively

Walt Whitman established his reputation as a poet in the late 1850s to early 1860s after the 1855 release of Leaves of Grass . [3] [4] The brief volume was controversial, [5] with critics particularly objecting to Whitman's blunt depictions of sexuality and what the University of Virginia Libraries has described as its "obvious homoerotic overtones". [6] At the start of the American Civil War, Whitman moved from New York to Washington, D.C., where he held a series of government jobs—first with the Army Paymaster's Office and later with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. [7] [8] He also volunteered in army hospitals as a nurse. [9]

Although they never met, Whitman saw Abraham Lincoln several times between 1861 and 1865. The first time was when Lincoln stopped in New York City in 1861 on his way to Washington. [10] [11] Whitman greatly admired the President, writing in October 1863, "I love the President personally," [12] and later declaring that "Lincoln gets almost nearer me than anybody else." [10] [11] Lincoln's assassination on April 15, 1865, greatly moved Whitman and the nation. Shortly after Lincoln's death, hundreds of poems had already been written about it. The historian Stephen B. Oates argues that "never had the nation mourned so over a fallen leader". [13] [11]

Whitman himself wrote four poems in tribute to the President: "O Captain! My Captain!", "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day", and "This Dust Was Once the Man". [10] [11] In 1875 he published Memoranda During the War, which included a narrative of Lincoln's death, [14] and the following year he published an article on Lincoln's death in The New York Sun . [15] [16] Though Whitman also considered writing a book on Lincoln, he never did. [17]

Whitman and lectures

An advertisement for Whitman's Lincoln lecture in Camden, New Jersey (1887). It includes the false claim that "Whitman was at the Theatre when Lincoln was assassinated". Ad for Whitman's Lincoln lecture (1887).jpg
An advertisement for Whitman's Lincoln lecture in Camden, New Jersey (1887). It includes the false claim that "Whitman was at the Theatre when Lincoln was assassinated".

In the mid-19th century, public lectures in the United States became regarded as a platform for well-known Americans to reach large numbers of people. Because of this, the lecture became directly associated with celebrity and fame. [19] By the 1870s, Whitman had long sought to be a lecturer, writing several lectures and delivering one as early as 1851, at the Brooklyn Art Union. [20]

In a letter written on February 3, 1878, Whitman's friend John Burroughs suggested that he deliver a lecture on Lincoln's assassination. Burroughs wrote that the editor Richard Watson Gilder also supported the idea, and suggested delivery around the anniversary of the assassination, in April. [21] [22] [23] On February 24, Whitman responded to Burroughs, agreeing to the proposal. The next month, Whitman began experiencing severe pain in his shoulder and was partially paralyzed; as a result, the lecture was postponed to May. On April 18, the physician Silas Weir Mitchell attributed this paralysis to a ruptured blood vessel in Whitman's brain, and in May Whitman gave up on plans for delivering the lecture that year. [24] In March 1879, [25] a group of Whitman's friends, including Gilder, Burroughs, and the jeweler John H. Johnston, began planning a lecture again. [17] [25] As part of the preparations for the first lecture, Whitman worked his New York Sun article into a format for reading aloud. [21]

Deliveries

Between 1879 and 1890 Whitman gave a lecture on the assassination of Lincoln a number of times. [26] Money made from these lectures constituted a major source of income for him in the last years of his life, before his death in 1892. [17] [27]

The first lecture was given in Steck Hall, New York City, on April 14, 1879. Whitman was unable to find further bookings for the rest of the year. [28] He did not give another lecture until April 15, 1880, in Association Hall, Philadelphia. He revised the lecture's content slightly for the second reading; it would stay in largely the same form for every subsequent delivery. [29] Whitman gave the lecture again in 1881. [30] No records show him delivering it in the next five years, but he gave it at least four times in 1886, and several times in the four years after. [26] Whitman's April 15, 1887, lecture at Madison Square Theatre is considered the most successful of the deliveries, largely because it was attended by many prominent societal figures. [31] He gave the lecture at least two further times, including his last delivery in Philadelphia on April 14, 1890, just two years before his death. [26] [17] The text of the lecture was published in Whitman's Complete Prose Works. [32] [33] [34] Whitman also sent a written copy of the lecture to his friend Thomas Donaldson in 1886. Donaldson, in turn, sent the lecture to the author Bram Stoker, who received it in 1894. [35]

Whitman said that he gave the lecture a total of thirteen times, [36] but later scholars give varying numbers—estimates range as high as twenty. [lower-alpha 1] [14] Eleven individual deliveries have been identified:

Known deliveries of Whitman's lecture on Lincoln
DateLocationDescriptionRef.
April 14, 1879 Steck Hall, New York CityGiven to a group of 60 to 80 people, Whitman's first lecture on Lincoln. Whitman sat while speaking. The reception of this lecture is unknown. [39] [40] [28]
April 15, 1880Association Hall, PhiladelphiaThe second known lecture, form modified slightly from the first. Whitman promoted this delivery by sending copies of the speech to several newspapers. [29] [41]
April 15, 1881Hawthorne Room of the St. Botolph Club, BostonOver 100 attendees, including the literary critic William Dean Howells. Raised $135, [lower-alpha 2] with tickets sold for $1 [lower-alpha 3] each. Organized by the Papyrus Club. Positively received by contemporary reviewers. After the Boston lecture, James R. Osgood agreed to publish an edition of Leaves of Grass, which the historian David S. Reynolds attributes to the lecture and associated increase in perception of Whitman as a respectable figure. [30] [43] [44]
February 2, 1886Pythian Club, Elkton, Maryland Given at the request of Whitman's friend Folger McKinsey as part of a public lecture series organized by the Pythian Journalists' Club. [45]
March 1, 1886Morton Hall, Camden [46]
April 15, 1886 Chestnut Street Opera House, PhiladelphiaAttendees included Stuart Merrill and George William Childs. Arranged as a benefit for Whitman by actors and journalists and raised $692. [lower-alpha 4] [47] [48]
May 18, 1886 Haddonfield, New Jersey Delivered as a fundraiser to benefit a local Episcopal Church, the Collingswood Mission, that was constructing a new building. Local newspapers later described it as "a grand success" and reported that around $22 [lower-alpha 5] was raised. [36]
April 5 or 6, 1887Unity Church, CamdenDelivered to Camden's Unitarian Society. Described by Reynolds as "a modest affair". [46] [49] [50]
April 14, 1887 Madison Square Theatre, New York CityGenerally considered the most successful lecture: though the theatre was not very full, [lower-alpha 6] it was attended by notable societal figures including prominent literary figures such as James Russell Lowell, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Wilson Barrett, Mark Twain, Frank Stockton, Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer; the former soldier William T. Sherman; Lincoln's biographer and former private secretary John Hay; the future Cuban revolutionary José Martí; the future author Stuart Merrill; and the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Reynolds described the lecture in 1995 as a "Barnumesque event on a high scale." [54] It was organized by Robert Pearsall Smith and several other friends of Whitman. At the end of the lecture, the poet Edmund Clarence Stedman's granddaughter brought Whitman lilacs and he read "O Captain! My Captain!". A reception at Whitman's hotel suite after the lecture was attended by about two hundred people. Whitman later described the lecture and its aftermath as "the culminating hour" of his life; [1] he earned $600 [lower-alpha 7] from the event, of which $350 [lower-alpha 8] was from Andrew Carnegie, who may not have actually attended the lecture. [lower-alpha 9] However, Whitman also told his friend Horace Traubel that he considered the event "too much the New York Jamboree". [2] [2] [62] [63] [64]
April 14, 1889New York CityAttendees included John Hay. [65]
April 14 or 15, 1890Philadelphia Art Gallery, PhiladelphiaGiven to the Contemporary Club. Whitman, undeterred by his failing health, spoke to a crowd of three to four hundred people. [lower-alpha 10] He could reportedly only climb to the building's second floor with assistance and struggled to read his manuscript. A transcript was published in the Boston Evening Transcript of April 19. This was the last lecture; Whitman died two years later. [68] [69] [70]

Content

An announcement of the lecture at Madison Square Theatre Walt Whitman on Abraham Lincoln announcement.jpg
An announcement of the lecture at Madison Square Theatre

The scholar Merrill D. Peterson describes Whitman as not an orator "either in manner or appearance". [17] Contemporary observers also described Whitman as a poor speaker, [28] saying that his voice would become higher than normal during deliveries and describing it as "unnatural-sounding". [71] However, other sources describe him as speaking in a low voice. [17]

The lecture combined clippings of previously written material, [72] such as the article Whitman had published on Lincoln's death in the New York Sun, [21] Memoranda During the War, The Bride of Gettysburg by John Dunbar Hilton, [73] and some new content. [72] In preparing for the lecture, Whitman also considered the story of Demodocus, a bard in Homer's Odyssey , who Whitman wrote "sings of the bloody war between the Greeks and Trojans". [73] [74]

According to the scholar Leslie Elizabeth Eckel, Whitman generally began by "downplaying his ability to handle the emotionally challenging task that lay before him". [75] He then moved into describing the rise in tensions leading up to the 1860 presidential election [76] and America during the Civil War era. Then he would describe Lincoln's death, the main focus of the lecture. [75] Whitman described Ford's Theatre and the assassination in vivid detail, as if he had been there. [77] [lower-alpha 11] He identified the assassination as a force that would "condense—a nationality," [75] equating Lincoln's killing to a sacrifice which would "cement [...] the whole people." [79]

Whitman brought a collection of fifteen poems with him to the lecture. He often read selections from the book at the lecture's conclusion. [26] [80] [lower-alpha 12] He frequently read his poem "O Captain! My Captain!", [17] but the book contained five other poems from Leaves of Grass including "Proud Music of the Storm" and "To the Man-of-War-Bird". It also had clippings of the works of other poets such as "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, poems by William Collins, and a translation of the ancient Greek poet Anacreon's Ode XXXIII by Thomas Moore called "The Midnight Visitor". [26] [81] [80] Whitman made his own alterations to the text of "The Midnight Visitor" that he read. [81]

Reception

A ticket to a delivery of the lecture Walt Whitman's lecture ticket, Death of Abraham Lincoln.jpg
A ticket to a delivery of the lecture

Deliveries of the lecture were popular and well received. [17] Daniel Mark Epstein, in a biography of Whitman, wrote that his deliveries were always successful and usually attracted vast amounts of positive attention in local newspapers. [82] The literary scholar Michael C. Cohen called Whitman's lecture his "most popular text" [83] and Reynolds describes Whitman's deliveries as making him a household name. [84] Conversely, in 1988 the professor Kerry C. Larson wrote that the "hackneyed" sentimentality of the lecture was indicative of a decline in his creativity. [85]

Deliveries of the lecture were generally only attended by members of high society. [86] According to Blake, they allowed those in attendance to "pay homage to both the president and the poet". He emphasizes how Whitman used the lecture to connect America's love for Lincoln with his own poetry, namely Leaves of Grass. [87] Whitman's biographer Justin Kaplan wrote that Whitman's 1887 lecture in New York City and its aftermath marked the closest he came to "social eminence on a large scale". [1]

Many audience members wrote positive accounts of hearing the lecture. José Martí, a Cuban journalist who was present at the 1887 lecture, wrote one such report that was spread across Latin America. [88] He described the crowd as listening "in religious silence, for its sudden grace notes, vibrant tones, hymnlike progress, and Olympian familiarity seemed at times the whispering of the stars". The poet Edmund Clarence Stedman wrote that "[s]omething of Lincoln himself seemed to pass into this man who loved and studied him", [89] and the poet Stuart Merrill said that Whitman's telling of the assassination convinced him that "I was there, [that] the very thing happened to me. And this recital was as gripping as the messengers' reports in Aeschylus." [90]

Whitman also used the lecture to further perception of himself as a "public historian". [72] Promotional materials for the lecture often falsely claimed that Whitman had known Lincoln well and had been in Ford's Theatre on the night of the assassination. An advertisement for his Elkton, Maryland, lecture in 1886 even said that Whitman had been in the room with Lincoln when he was shot. [18] Whitman's lecture was intended to give the impression of presenting a factual account, with a tone that scholar Martin T. Buinicki writes is "pointedly historical". The English scholar Gregory Eiselein contrasts Whitman's depiction of Lincoln's death in his lecture with that in his poem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", noting that "Lilacs" has a tone that Eiselein describes as "musical, ethereal, often abstract, [and] heavily symbolized." [72] Blake describes Whitman's deliveries of his lecture and the respect they received from high society as representing a final "triumph" for Whitman, over the "slander and scorn" he had once experienced from the same group. Blake goes on to write that regularly delivering the lecture became "vital to [Whitman's] permanent achievement of [fame]." [91]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Barton wrote in 1928 that he considered thirteen to be too large and was able to compile a list of nine definite occasions. [37] Loving argued in 1999 that ten was "the best estimate". [38]
  2. ↑ equivalent to $4,260in 2023 [42]
  3. ↑ equivalent to $32in 2023 [42]
  4. ↑ equivalent to $23,500in 2023 [42]
  5. ↑ equivalent to $750in 2023 [42]
  6. ↑ According to Kaplan, the theatre was a quarter filled. [51] Loving describes the auditorium as "sparsely crowded", [52] while contemporary observer Stuart Merrill described a "thinly scattered" crowd. However, Johnston wrote that the theatre was packed. [53]
  7. ↑ equivalent to $20,300in 2023 [42]
  8. ↑ equivalent to $11,900in 2023 [42]
  9. ↑ Sources conflict over whether Carnegie was in attendance at the lecture. Some, such as the Whitman scholars Kaplan, Krieg and Carnegie biographer Nasaw, describe him as having been there, [51] [49] [55] while others, including the Whitman scholars Pannapacker and Blake, write that he did not come, [56] [57] despite having paid for his box. Loving writes that Carnegie was not in the box that he paid for. [52] Sources contemporary to the lecture are similarly in conflict; The New York Times lists Carnegie as having been in attendance, [58] while The Indianapolis Journal describes him as seated in the pit. [59] The New York Tribune wrote that Carnegie did not reach New York City until the evening of the 15th, at which point he remained in his room, too sick to see "even his most intimate friends", [60] and an article in The Critic wrote that Carnegie had been "unable to occupy" his box and paid Whitman $350 when he reached New York "a day or two" after the lecture. [61]
  10. ↑ While Reynolds describes the lecture as having been attended by a "cordial crowd of sixty to eighty", [66] Whitman's friend Horace Traubel, who was at the lecture, wrote that it was attended by "3 to 4 hundred" people. [67]
  11. ↑ While Whitman had not seen Lincoln's assassination, he interviewed Peter Doyle, an intimate companion of Whitman who was present at Ford's Theatre when Lincoln was killed. He based his lectures in part on Doyle's account. [78]
  12. ↑ The original copy of the book is lost, [80] but its contents are described in Furness 1928, pp. 204–206.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Kaplan 1980, p. 31.
  2. 1 2 3 Reynolds 1995, p. 555.
  3. ↑ Miller 1962, p. 155.
  4. ↑ Kaplan 1980, p. 187.
  5. ↑ Loving 1999, p. 414.
  6. ↑ "Banned, Burned, Bowdlerized". CENSORED: Wielding the Red Pen. University of Virginia Library Online Exhibits. Archived from the original on August 20, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  7. ↑ Loving 1999, p. 283.
  8. ↑ Callow 1992, p. 293.
  9. ↑ Peck 2015, p. 64.
  10. 1 2 3 Griffin, Martin (May 4, 2015). "How Whitman Remembered Lincoln". Opinionator. The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Pannapacker, William A. (1998). "Lincoln, Abraham (1809–1865)". In LeMaster, J. R.; Kummings, Donald D. (eds.). Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia. New York City: Garland Publishing. Archived from the original on January 29, 2023. Retrieved October 12, 2020– via The Walt Whitman Archive.
  12. ↑ Loving 1999, p. 288.
  13. ↑ Pannapacker 2004, p. 88.
  14. 1 2 Cushman 2014, p. 47.
  15. ↑ Barton 1965, p. 191.
  16. ↑ Text of article at Barton 1965, pp. 248–254.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Peterson 1995, pp. 138–139.
  18. 1 2 Blake 2006, pp. 188–190.
  19. ↑ Blake 2006, pp. 35–37.
  20. ↑ Barton 1965, pp. 187–188.
  21. 1 2 3 Barton 1965, pp. 192–193.
  22. ↑ Glicksberg 2016, p. 173.
  23. ↑ Loving 1999, p. 386.
  24. ↑ Krieg 1998, pp. 118–119.
  25. 1 2 Krieg 1998, p. 122.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 Griffin, Larry D. (1998). "Death of Abraham Lincoln (1879)". In LeMaster, J. R.; Kummings, Donald D. (eds.). Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing. Archived from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved January 8, 2021– via The Walt Whitman Archive.
  27. ↑ Reynolds 1995, p. 524.
  28. 1 2 3 Allen 1967, p. 484.
  29. 1 2 Barton 1965, pp. 195–197.
  30. 1 2 Allen 1967, p. 491.
  31. ↑ Barton 1965, p. 209.
  32. ↑ Trimble 1905, p. 71.
  33. ↑ Whitman 1892, p. 306.
  34. ↑ Versions of the text are also published in Barton 1965, pp. 254–267 and in Whitman, Walt, Memoranda During the War, edited by Peter Coviello. Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 144–157.
  35. ↑ Havlik 1987, pp. 9, 11.
  36. 1 2 Azarnoff 1963, pp. 65–66.
  37. ↑ Barton 1965, pp. 194, 214.
  38. ↑ Loving 1999, p. 440.
  39. ↑ Barton 1965, pp. 192–194.
  40. ↑ Reynolds 1995, p. 531.
  41. ↑ Reynolds 1995, p. 534.
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  43. ↑ Krieg 1998, p. 132.
  44. ↑ Reynolds 1995, pp. 531, 533–534.
  45. ↑ Moyne 1975, pp. 142–143.
  46. 1 2 Barton 1965, p. 208.
  47. ↑ Krieg 1998, p. 151.
  48. ↑ Allen 1967, p. 524.
  49. 1 2 Krieg 1998, p. 154.
  50. ↑ Reynolds 1995, p. 564.
  51. 1 2 Kaplan 1980, p. 29.
  52. 1 2 Loving 1999, p. 450.
  53. ↑ Pannapacker 2004, p. 161.
  54. ↑ Reynolds 1995, p. 554.
  55. ↑ Nasaw 2006, p. 295.
  56. ↑ Pannapacker 2004, p. 55.
  57. ↑ Blake 2006, p. 191.
  58. ↑ "A Tribute from a Poet". The New York Times. April 15, 1887. ProQuest   94478894. Archived from the original on November 1, 2023.
  59. ↑ "Walt Whitman Lectures on Lincoln". The Indianapolis Journal. April 15, 1887. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  60. ↑ "Andrew Carnegie in Town". The New York Tribune. April 16, 1887. p. 4. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  61. ↑ The Critic 1887, p. 211.
  62. ↑ "Walt Whitman Lectures on Abraham Lincoln". The Washington Post. April 15, 1887. ProQuest   138078794.
  63. ↑ Epstein 2004, pp. 325–327.
  64. ↑ Kaplan 1980, p. 30.
  65. ↑ Barton 1965, p. 213.
  66. ↑ Reynolds 1995, p. 575.
  67. ↑ Traubel 1982, p. 365.
  68. ↑ Blake 2006, p. 193.
  69. ↑ Krieg 1998, p. 167.
  70. ↑ Morris 2000, p. 242.
  71. ↑ Marinacci 1970, p. 393.
  72. 1 2 3 4 Buinicki 2011, p. 145.
  73. 1 2 Bair, Barbara (April 14, 2021). "Remembrance: Whitman's 'The Death of Lincoln' and the By the People Whitman Campaign". From the Catbird Seat: Poetry and Literature at the Library of Congress. ISSN   2692-1723. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  74. ↑ Whitman, Walt. "'Death of Abraham Lincoln,' notes". Walt Whitman Papers in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection. Library of Congress. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  75. 1 2 3 Levin & Whitley 2018, pp. 102–103.
  76. ↑ Reynolds 1995, p. 441.
  77. ↑ Blake 2006, p. 188.
  78. ↑ Eiselein, Gregory (1998). "Lincoln's Death [1865]". In LeMaster, J. R.; Kummings, Donald D. (eds.). Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia. New York City: Garland Publishing. Archived from the original on September 24, 2022. Retrieved January 8, 2021– via The Walt Whitman Archive.
  79. ↑ Blake 2006, p. 190.
  80. 1 2 3 Grier 2007, p. 1054.
  81. 1 2 Golden 1988, pp. 91–94.
  82. ↑ Epstein 2004, p. 323.
  83. ↑ Cohen 2015, p. 157.
  84. ↑ Reynolds 1995, p. 496.
  85. ↑ Larson 1988, p. 232.
  86. ↑ Reynolds 1995, p. 536.
  87. ↑ Blake 2006, pp. 190–193.
  88. ↑ Allen 1967, p. 525.
  89. ↑ Peterson 1995, pp. 139–140.
  90. ↑ Levin & Whitley 2018, p. 102.
  91. ↑ Blake 2006, pp. 193–194.

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