Walt Whitman's lectures 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.
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 lecture. 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
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] He 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
In the mid-19th century,
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
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.[a][14] Eleven individual deliveries have been identified:
Date | Location | Description | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|
April 14, 1879 | Steck Hall , New York City
|
Given 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, 1880 | Association Hall, Philadelphia | The 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, 1881 | Hawthorne Room of the St. Botolph Club, Boston | Over 100 attendees, including the literary critic William Dean Howells. Raised $135,[b] with tickets sold for $1[c] 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][42][43] |
February 2, 1886 | Pythian 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. | [44] |
March 1, 1886 | Morton Hall, Camden | [45] | |
April 15, 1886 | Chestnut Opera House, Philadelphia | Attendees included Stuart Merrill and George William Childs. Arranged as a benefit for Whitman by actors and journalists and raised $692.[d] | [46][47] |
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[e] was raised. | [36] |
April 5 or 6, 1887 | Unity Church, Camden | Delivered to Camden's Unitarian Society. Described by Reynolds as "a modest affair". | [45][48][49] |
April 14, 1887 | Madison Square Theatre, New York City | Generally considered the most successful lecture: though the theatre was not very full, 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[g] from the event, of which $350[h] was from Andrew Carnegie, who may not have actually attended the lecture.[i] However, Whitman also told his friend Horace Traubel that he considered the event "too much the New York Jamboree".[2]
|
[2][61][62][63] |
April 14, 1889 | New York City | Attendees included John Hay. | [64] |
April 14 or 15, 1890 | Philadelphia Art Gallery, Philadelphia | Given to the Contemporary Club. Whitman, undeterred by his failing health, spoke to a crowd of three to four hundred people.[j] 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. | [67][68][69] |
Content
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".[70] However, other sources describe him as speaking in a low voice.[17]
The lecture combined clippings of previously written material,[71] 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,[72] and some new content.[71] 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".[72][73]
According to the scholar Leslie Elizabeth Eckel, Whitman generally began by "downplaying his ability to handle the emotionally challenging task that lay before him".[74] He then moved into describing the rise in tensions leading up to the 1860 presidential election[75] and America during the Civil War era. Then he would describe Lincoln's death, the main focus of the lecture.[74] Whitman described Ford's Theatre and the assassination in vivid detail, as if he had been there.[76][k] He identified the assassination as a force that would "condense—a nationality,"[74] equating Lincoln's killing to a sacrifice which would "cement [...] the whole people."[78]
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][79][l] 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][80][79] Whitman made his own alterations to the text of "The Midnight Visitor" that he read.[80]
Reception
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.[81] The literary scholar Michael C. Cohen called Whitman's lecture his "most popular text"[82] and Reynolds describes Whitman's deliveries as making him a household name.[83] Conversely, in 1988 the professor Kerry C. Larson wrote that the "hackneyed" sentimentality of the lecture was indicative of a decline in his creativity.[84]
Deliveries of the lecture were generally only attended by members of high society.[85] 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.[86] 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.
Whitman also used the lecture to further perception of himself as a "public historian".[71] 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."[71] 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]."[90]
Notes
- ^ 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]
- ^ equivalent to $4,094 in 2022
- ^ equivalent to $30 in 2022
- ^ equivalent to $22,539 in 2022
- ^ equivalent to $717 in 2022
- ^ According to Kaplan, the theatre was a quarter filled.[50] Loving describes the auditorium as "sparsely crowded",[51] while contemporary observer Stuart Merrill described a "thinly scattered" crowd. However, Johnston wrote that the theatre was packed.[52]
- ^ equivalent to $19,542 in 2022
- ^ equivalent to $11,400 in 2022
- 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.[60]
- ^ While Reynolds describes the lecture as having been attended by a "cordial crowd of sixty to eighty",[65] Whitman's friend Horace Traubel, who was at the lecture, wrote that it was attended by "3 to 4 hundred" people.[66]
- ^ 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.[77]
- ^ The original copy of the book is lost,[79] but its contents are described in Furness 1928, pp. 204–206.
References
- ^ a b c d Kaplan 1980, p. 31.
- ^ a b c Reynolds 1995, p. 555.
- ^ Miller 1962, p. 155.
- ^ Kaplan 1980, p. 187.
- ^ Loving 1999, p. 414.
- ^ "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.
- ^ Loving 1999, p. 283.
- ^ Callow 1992, p. 293.
- ^ Peck 2015, p. 64.
- ^ from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
- ^ a b c d 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.
- ^ Loving 1999, p. 288.
- ^ Pannapacker 2004, p. 88.
- ^ a b Cushman 2014, p. 47.
- ^ Barton 1965, p. 191.
- ^ Text of article at Barton 1965, pp. 248-254.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Peterson 1995, pp. 138–139.
- ^ a b Blake 2006, pp. 188–190.
- ^ Blake 2006, pp. 35–37.
- ^ Barton 1965, pp. 187–188.
- ^ a b c Barton 1965, pp. 192–193.
- ^ Glicksberg 2016, p. 173.
- ^ Loving 1999, p. 386.
- ^ Krieg 1998, pp. 118–119.
- ^ a b Krieg 1998, p. 122.
- ^ a b c d e Griffin, Larry D. (1998). "Death of Abraham Lincoln (1879)". In LeMaster, J. R.; Kummings, Donald D. (eds.). Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia. New York City: Garland Publishing. Archived from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved January 8, 2021 – via The Walt Whitman Archive.
- ^ Reynolds 1995, p. 524.
- ^ a b c Allen 1967, p. 484.
- ^ a b Barton 1965, pp. 195–197.
- ^ a b Allen 1967, p. 491.
- ^ Barton 1965, p. 209.
- ^ Trimble 1905, p. 71.
- ^ Whitman 1892, p. 306.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Havlik 1987, pp. 9, 11.
- ^ a b Azarnoff 1963, pp. 65–66.
- ^ Barton 1965, pp. 194, 214.
- ^ Loving 1999, p. 440.
- ^ Barton 1965, pp. 192–194.
- ^ Reynolds 1995, p. 531.
- ^ Reynolds 1995, p. 534.
- ^ Krieg 1998, p. 132.
- ^ Reynolds 1995, pp. 531, 533–534.
- ^ Moyne 1975, pp. 142–143.
- ^ a b Barton 1965, p. 208.
- ^ Krieg 1998, p. 151.
- ^ Allen 1967, p. 524.
- ^ a b Krieg 1998, p. 154.
- ^ Reynolds 1995, p. 564.
- ^ a b Kaplan 1980, p. 29.
- ^ a b Loving 1999, p. 450.
- ^ Pannapacker 2004, p. 161.
- ^ Reynolds 1995, p. 554.
- ^ Nasaw 2006, p. 295.
- ^ Pannapacker 2004, p. 55.
- ^ Blake 2006, p. 191.
- ProQuest 94478894. Archived from the originalon November 1, 2023.
- ^ "Walt Whitman Lectures on Lincoln". The Indianapolis Journal. April 15, 1887. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
- ^ "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.
- ^ The Critic 1887, p. 211.
- ProQuest 138078794.
- ^ Epstein 2004, pp. 325–327.
- ^ Kaplan 1980, p. 30.
- ^ Barton 1965, p. 213.
- ^ Reynolds 1995, p. 575.
- ^ Traubel 1982, p. 365.
- ^ Blake 2006, p. 193.
- ^ Krieg 1998, p. 167.
- ^ Morris 2000, p. 242.
- ^ Marinacci 1970, p. 393.
- ^ a b c d Buinicki 2011, p. 145.
- ^ from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
- ^ Whitman, Walt. "'Death of Abraham Lincoln,' notes". Walt Whitman Papers in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection. Library of Congress. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
- ^ a b c Levin & Whitley 2018, pp. 102–103.
- ^ Reynolds 1995, p. 441.
- ^ Blake 2006, p. 188.
- ^ 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.}
- ^ Blake 2006, p. 190.
- ^ a b c Grier 2007, p. 1054.
- ^ a b Golden 1988, pp. 91–94.
- ^ Epstein 2004, p. 323.
- ^ Cohen 2015, p. 157.
- ^ Reynolds 1995, p. 496.
- ^ Larson 1988, p. 232.
- ^ Reynolds 1995, p. 536.
- ^ Blake 2006, pp. 190–193.
- ^ Allen 1967, p. 525.
- ^ Peterson 1995, pp. 139–140.
- ^ Levin & Whitley 2018, p. 102.
- ^ Blake 2006, pp. 193–194.
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