New Walt Whitman texts reveal German ties

Often called the father of free verse, poet, essayist and journalist Walt Whitman (1819-1892) had a profound impact on poetry in the United States.

His most famous work, Leaves of Grass, prompted controversy when it was first published in 1855.

• "Writing and talk do not prove me, I carry the plenum of proof and every thing else in my face, With the hush of my lips I confound the topmost skeptic." Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself

Part of the controversy stemmed from the tome's undisguised sensuality. Controversial, too, was Whitman's presumed homo- or bisexuality.

• "The bodies of men and women engirth me, and I engirth them, They will not let me off nor I them till I go with them and respond to them and love them." Leaves of Grass, I Sing the Body Electric

Born in West Hills, New York in 1819, Walt Whitman lived much of his life in Brooklyn. Leaving school at the age of 11, he became a journalist, teacher, government clerk and poet. Influenced by transcendentalism and realism, he thus financed the publication of Leaves of Grass in 1855.

Whitman lived in New Orleans for three months in 1848 and helped establish the New Orleans Daily Crescent newspaper. Whitman then left the city in the South of the United States and returned to New York City, with most scholars assuming Whitman's contributions to the paper ceased upon his departure. 

Literary detectives at work

But recently, scholars Stefan Schöberlein, of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia in the US — along with his colleague, Zachary Turpin, of the University of Idaho — have found "that Whitman kept contributing texts by mail: both correspondence under the pen name of 'Manhattan' and further installments of a humorous series of sketches he had begun during his in-person tenure." 

That means that they have discovered "a significant cache of hitherto unknown texts" by Whitman, which were originally written for the Daily Crescent newspaper in New Orleans.

"These newly discovered texts stretch over a period of six months and constitute a fascinating glimpse into Whitman's day-to-day activities, political ideas, and attitudes about race during a period in his life that has been somewhat shrouded in mystery," Schöberlein told DW in an email.

Their findings have just been published in the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review.

Most significant Whitman (re)discovery in years

After discovering a series of letters published in the Crescent that sounded "a lot like Whitman," the researchers did a computer analysis to assess whether the language used in the texts reflected the author's.

And they did indeed "turn out to be the almost 50 'Manhattan' letters we have now identified," Schöberlein said, adding: "These sets of texts constitute one of the most significant textual rediscoveries by Whitman in recent years. It fundamentally changes how we understand Whitman's relationship to New York and his activities in that crucial year, 1848."

Whitman's affinity to Germany

The newly discovered texts also reveal that Whitman closely followed developments in Germany.  

In 1848 and 1849, Germany was embroiled in a series of revolutions that would define European history. 

"In his letters after his return to New York, we see him paying close attention to the 1848 revolutions in the various German states (and beyond). And when the infamous Badenesian revolutionary Friedrich Hecker arrives in his New York exile in October of 1848, Whitman is there to cheer him on and salute the German republican flag," explained Schöberlein.

Friedrich Hecker led the "Hecker Uprising," along with Gustav von Struve and other radicals — an attempt in April 1848 to overthrow the German monarchy and establish a republic in the Grand Duchy of Baden.

Whitman, a fan of German music

Whitman was not only interested in German politics, but also in culture. 

"We always knew that Whitman loved Italian operas — but now we know he loved German and Austrian music, too. He eagerly listened to Joseph Gungl's German Musical Society perform Beethoven, Strauss, Mendelssohn, and Spohr. He was especially enchanted by a young violinist named Ikelheimer. Just a few weeks later, he raves about Lenschow's 'Germania' troupe," Schöberlein said of the Manhattan letters.

Likewise in the Manhattan letters, Whitman discussed European emigration and anti-immigrant sentiment in the US in the 19th century. "Hardly a day passes that hundreds of poor wayfarers from Europe do not land upon our wharves; some no doubt, to sink amid disease or poverty, but most, I am happy to say, to take a start which brings them amid better times and far more comfort," poet and journalist Whitman wrote.

Still relevant today

Beyond the poet's profound literary influence, Whitman remains relevant to this day.

"When I teach Whitman, I'm always struck by how relevant he seems, often in unexpected ways." said Schöberlein. "During the height of the first waves of COVID, my students and I discussed one of Whitman's prose pieces that deals with how one might possibly take account of mass death of the Civil War. In the same week, The New York Times was attempting the same on its front page (with those lost to the pandemic)."

One could argue that Whitman is just another "old white guy" of the literary canon, and that contemporary verse by female poets of color, like US National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman or Indian-born Canadian poet Rupi Kaur deserves more attention. Yet poetry can always educate and entertain, regardless of the color and gender of the writer.

"I often read one of Whitman's lesser-known love poems in class and enjoy seeing the surprise on my students' faces when they realize that the whole piece is fully gender-neutral — which felt so seamless to them that they didn't notice it at first," Schöberlein said.

"Whitman was an undogmatic political and philosophical thinker, able to transcend his own personal biases in writing — to a degree that is truly remarkable," says Schöberlein. "All of his bravado and bluster aside, Whitman's underlying thesis that 'democracy' is above all a set of attitudes and behaviors, a way of seeing and way of being in the world, remains a really important insight to me."

Speaking about Whitman's poetry, Schöberlein said: "There's just something about this grandiose amateur poet who decided to explain the universe in slang and innuendo that still feels utterly refreshing."