Book Details
Format
Hardcover
Pages
215
Language
English
Published
Apr 29, 1994
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
ISBN-10
0521453577
ISBN-13
9780521453578
Description
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.