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Walt Whitman is one of America’s most esteemed poets and Leaves Of Grass has become a touchstone of American literature. This is especially impressive considering that the first two editions of the poetry collection were self-published. When it was finally going to be professionally published, the American Civil War broke out and effectively squashed the third edition. As if that wasn’t enough, the book’s revolutionary style and frank sexual content drew considerable ire and furious reviews. Take this 1855 effort from Edgar Allan Poe’s archnemesis, Rufus Griswold:
“It is impossible to imagine how any man’s fancy could have conceived such a mass of stupid filth, unless he were possessed of the soul of a sentimental donkey that had died of disappointed love.â€And that was still just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the grief Whitman’s work brought him. In 1865, while he was working as a clerk in the Department of the Interior, he left a copy of the book on his desk, where his boss chanced upon it and promptly fired him for writing such stupid filth. Even in 1882, the book was still controversial enough to be banned in Boston as “obscene literature.†Still, it was probably received better than any of our attempts at poetry would be. --
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