Fall 2004 Work of Literary Merit (WOLM)

Leaves of Grass
by Walt Whitman

To find information about Walt Whitman and his work, try some of the following sources:

Articles in the Library's Online Databases

Literature Resource Center

This online database includes biographical information about Walt Whitman as well as several brief overviews of Leaves of Grass and literary criticism of Leaves of Grass . The information is drawn from standard reference books such as Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography and Contemporary Literary Criticism .

(Off campus access: Use the "Off campus" link for Literature Resource Center on the Library's Articles & Databases page. SRJC User Name and PIN required for off-campus access.)

Expanded Academic ASAP (InfoTrac)

The Expanded Academic ASAP (formerly called "InfoTrac") database contains magazine and journal articles on many topics. A search on "whitman walt " (not "walt whitman ") will locate numerous articles in online magazines as well as in print copies of magazines held in the SRJC libraries. You can also search Expanded Academic ASAP with its Advanced search mode for su whitman walt and su leaves of grass or for other related topics.

(Off campus access: Use the "Off campus" link for InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP on the Library's Articles & Databases page. SRJC User Name and PIN required for off-campus access.)

Twayne's Authors Series

This online book about Walt Whitman contains information about his life and his work, particularly Leaves of Grass.

netLibrary

Several electronic books by and about Walt Whitman are available in the California Community Colleges' netLibrary collection. Be sure to read the instructions for setting up your own free account, then search for "walt whitman " .

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Books, Articles and Films on Library Reserve for the WOLM

A collection of books and journal articles about Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass have been placed on reserve in the SRJC libraries for the WOLM project. In addition, several films may be be viewed in the SRJC libraries. In the Plover Library, ask for books and articles at the Reserve Books window; ask for films at the Media Services window. In the Mahoney Library, ask for books, articles or films at the Circulation Desk.

Selected Web Sites for the WOLM Project

Whitman and His Work
Related Topics

Websites on Whitman and His Work

The Walt Whitman Archive

The Archives is in the process of digitizing all eight editions of Whitman's Leaves of Grass as well as his other poetry and prose. You'll find information here about Whitman's life and work, including literary criticism of Whitman's work written between 1855 and 1882, i.e. during Whitman's lifetime (Select "Contemporary Reviews" -->"Leaves of Grass"). Also included are photos of Whitman and of some of his manuscripts, and an audio clip of Whitman reading a few lines from his poem "America."

Online copies of Whitman's Works

Walt Whitman

From Bartleby.com, here's another online copy of poems from Whitman's Leaves of Grass, as well as copies of his essays and prose works and selected Whitman quotations.

"Democratic Vistas," by Walt Whitman

Essay on democracy and politics in America.

Poet At Work: Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman Collection

View notes on various topics, written in Whitman's own handwriting. From the Library of Congress's American Memory Project, this site offers digitized images of pages from some of his notebooks and links to various sections by theme, such as the Civil War, nation building, the individual, etc.

Selected Quotations by Walt Whitman

241 quotations from various sources.

Websites About Whitman's Work

Walt Whitman and the Development of Leaves of Grass

Based on a special library exhibit, this web site traces Whitman's work on Leaves of Grass and its publishing history over the course of his lifetime.

The Classroom Electric:Dickinson, Whitman and American Culture

"A constellation of web sites on Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and nineteenth-century American culture. Here users can explore images of original manuscripts, rare photographs, notebooks, scrapbooks, letters, and maps in sites informed by cutting-edge scholarship."The individual web sites on Whitman cover topics such as Whitman & Slavery, Masculinity in Whitman's Civil War, Whitman, Dickinson, & the Elegy: Death & Dying during the Civil War and numerous others.

Whitman, Walt [1819-1892], American Poet

A lengthy list of Whitman web sites, with links to each. Categories include biographical information, links to Whitman's works online, commentary and literary criticism, quotations, memorials and tributes and more. The list compiler claims to be related to Walt Whitman.

I Hear America Singing: Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

This profile of Whitman from PBS offers an essay about the role of classical music, particularly singing, in Whitman's life and his poems. It also contains numerous photos of the poet and two video clips in which baritone Thomas Hampson talks about Whitman's compassion and his democratic voice.

Price, Angel. Whitman's Drum Taps and Washington's Civil War Hospitals. The Capitol Project, University of Virginia. n.d.

Discussion of Whitman's book of poetry Drum Taps (1865). Many of its poems resulted from his years in Washington, D.C., spent as a psychological nurse to sick and wounded soldiers. Also discusses the Civil War hospitals themselves and shows photographs of hospitals, medical tools and an ambulance train.

Traveling with the Wounded; Walt Whitman and Washington's Civil War Hospitals.

Essay by Martin G. Murray, founder of The Washington Friends of Walt Whitman

Miller, James E. Jr. "Sex and Sexuality"

Article on sex and sexuality in Whitman's work. "Reproduced from J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings, eds., Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).

Jackson, Leon . "Walt Whitman and the HomoErotic Tradition." Diversity Counts!

Big Rapids, Michigan: College of Arts and Sciences, Ferris State University, n.d..

Norton,Rictor. "Walt Whitman, Prophet of Gay Liberation", The Great Queens of History, updated 18 Nov. 1999.

Essay by Rictor Norton, freelance editor, writer and developer of the web site Gay History and Literature: Essays by Rictor Norton.

Mitchell, Jason Paul. Constructing Walt Whitman: The Critics Contend With the Good G(r)ay Poet. Henry Street: A Graduate Review of Literary of Literary Studies . Spring 1997.

On the response of scholars and critics to Whitman's homosexuality.

Walt Whitman & Slavery

Part of the Classroom Electric project, this site invites users to consider Whitman's treatment of race and slavery in "Song of Myself" and focuses in particular on two fugitive slave passages. According to the site's author, "Whitman was more enthusiastic about supporting the freedom of enslaved African Americans before the war than he was about granting full citizenship to liberated African Americans after the war. Yet even in a poem such as "Song of Myself," published as the first untitled poem in Leaves of Grass (1855), Whitman's attitudes reflect the deep-seated prejudices of his culture despite his powerful if uneven efforts to rise above them. "

Websites on Related Topics

The Civil War

Based on a PBS film by Ken Burns, this web site describes the war, its importance and its impact. Includes a Civil War fact sheet , maps, biographies of key figures, historical documents, hundreds of photographs by Matthew Brady and other Civil War photographers, a list of books about the war and links to numerous other Civil War websites. Click on various parts of some of the photos, and related historical details appear on the screen.

Selected Civil War Photographs

From the Library of Congress's American Memory Project, this collection contains 1,118 photographs. Most of the images were made under the supervision of Mathew B. Brady , and include scenes of military personnel, preparations for battle, and battle after-effects. The collection also includes portraits of both Confederate and Union officers, and a selection of enlisted men.

The Valley of the Shadow; Two Communities in the American Civil War

This site details life in two American communities, one Northern and one Southern, from the time of John Brown's raid through the era of reconstruction. Contains thousands of original letters and diaries, newspapers and speeches, census and church records. From historian Edward L. Ayers of the University of Virginia.

 

 

 

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