Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
gave a series of lectures on
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...
from 1879 to 1890. They centered around the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play '' Our American Cousin'' at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Shot in the ...
, but also covered years leading up to and during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
and sometimes included readings of poems such as "
O Captain! My Captain!". The lectures began as a benefit for Whitman and were generally popular and well received.
Whitman greatly admired Lincoln and was moved by his assassination in 1865 to write several poems in the president's memory. The idea of Whitman's giving lectures about the topic was first circulated by his friend
John Burroughs
John Burroughs (April 3, 1837 – March 29, 1921) was an American naturalist and nature essayist, active in the conservation movement in the United States. The first of his essay collections was ''Wake-Robin'' in 1871.
In the words of his bi ...
in an 1878 letter. Whitman, who had long aspired to be a lecturer, gave his first lecture in New York City on April 14 the following year. Over the course of the next eleven years, he gave the lecture at least ten more times, and possibly as many as twenty. A delivery of the lecture in 1887 at
Madison Square Theatre
''The Madison Square Theatre'' was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, on the south side of 24th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway (which intersects Fifth Avenue near that point.) It was built in 1863, operated as a theater from 1865 to 1908, ...
is considered to have been his most successful lecture and had many prominent members of society in the audience. Whitman described the lecture as "the culminating hour" of his life, but may also have disliked the intense celebrity of the lectures. He gave the lecture for the last time in Philadelphia in 1890, two years before his death.
The 1887 lecture was described by Whitman's biographer
Justin Kaplan
Justin Daniel Kaplan (September 5, 1925 in Manhattan, New York City – March 2, 2014 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American writer and editor. The general editor of ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' (16th and 17th eds.), he was best kno ...
in 1980 as the closest Whitman came to "social eminence on a large scale".
Background
Walt Whitman
Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...
established his reputation as a poet in the late 1850s to early 1860s after the 1855 release of ''
Leaves of Grass
''Leaves of Grass'' is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting ''Leaves of Grass'', revising it multiple times until his death. T ...
''. The brief volume released in 1855 was considered controversial by some, with critics particularly objecting to Whitman's blunt depictions of sexuality and the poem's "homoerotic overtones".
At the start of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...
, Whitman moved from New York to Washington, D.C., where he held a series of government jobs—first with the
Army Paymaster's Office and later with the
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States federal agency within the Department of the Interior. It is responsible for implementing federal laws and policies related to American Indians and A ...
. He volunteered in the army hospitals as a nurse.
Although they never met, Whitman saw
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...
several times between 1861 and 1865, sometimes in close quarters. The first time was when Lincoln stopped in New York City in 1861 on his way to Washington.
He greatly admired the President, writing in October 1863, "I love the President personally." Whitman later declared that "Lincoln gets almost nearer me than anybody else."
Lincoln's assassination
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was Assassination, assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, while attending the play ''Our American Cousin'' at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.
S ...
on April 15, 1865, greatly moved Whitman and the nation. Shortly after Lincoln's death, hundreds of poems were written on the topic. The historian
Stephen B. Oates
Stephen Baery Oates (January 5, 1936August 20, 2021) was a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He specialized in the American Civil War era and authored numerous books.
Early life and education
Stephen Baery Oates w ...
noted that "never had the nation mourned so over a fallen leader".
Whitman himself wrote four poems in tribute to the fallen President. "
O Captain! My Captain!", "
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is a long poem written by American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) as an elegy to President Abraham Lincoln. It was written in the summer of 1865 during a period of profound national mourning in the af ...
", "
Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day", and "
This Dust Was Once the Man" were all written on Lincoln's death. While the poems do not specifically mention Lincoln, they turn the assassination of the President into a sort of martyrdom.
In 1875 Whitman published ''Memoranda During the War'', which included a narrative of Lincoln's death. The following year he published an article on Lincoln's death in ''
The New York Sun
''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New Yor ...
'', and considered writing a book on Lincoln, but never did.
Whitman and lectures
![Ad for Whitman's Lincoln lecture (1887)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Ad_for_Whitman%27s_Lincoln_lecture_%281887%29.jpg)
In the mid-19th century,
public lectures in the United States emerged as a place for prominent Americans to speak. As more high profile people began lecturing, more Americans began attending lectures. Because of this, scholar David Haven Blake writes, the lecture became directly associated with celebrity and fame. By the 1870s, Whitman had long aspired to be a lecturer and had given several in the 1850s and 1860s.
In a letter written on February 3, 1878, Whitman's friend
John Burroughs
John Burroughs (April 3, 1837 – March 29, 1921) was an American naturalist and nature essayist, active in the conservation movement in the United States. The first of his essay collections was ''Wake-Robin'' in 1871.
In the words of his bi ...
suggested that he deliver a lecture on Lincoln's assassination. Burroughs wrote that the poet
Richard Watson Gilder
Richard Watson Gilder (February 8, 1844 – November 19, 1909) was an American poet and editor.
Life and career
Gilder was born on February 8, 1844 at Bordentown, New Jersey. He was the son of Jane (Nutt) Gilder and the Rev. William Henry Gi ...
also supported the idea and suggested delivery around the anniversary of the assassination, in April. 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 paralysis was attributed to a ruptured blood vessel in his brain by the physician
Silas Weir Mitchell and in May he gave up on plans for the lecture that year. In March 1879, a group of Whitman's friends, including Gilder, Burroughs, and the jeweler John H. Johnston, again began planning a lecture. As part of the preparations for the first lecture, Whitman worked his ''New York Sun'' article into a readable format.
Deliveries
Between 1879 and 1890 Whitman delivered his lecture on the assassination of Lincoln a number of times.
Money made from these lectures constituted a major source of income for him in the years leading to his death.
The first lecture was given in
Steck Hall, New York City, on April 14, 1879. Whitman was unable find further bookings for lectures for the rest of the year. He did not give another lecture until April 15, 1880, in Association Hall, Philadelphia. He revised the lecture's content slightly for the second reading; it would stay in largely the same form for the remainder of his lectures. Whitman gave the lecture again in 1881. There are no records of him delivering it in the next five years, but he gave it at least four times in 1886, and several times in the ensuing four years.
Whitman's April 15, 1887 lecture at
Madison Square Theatre
''The Madison Square Theatre'' was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, on the south side of 24th Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway (which intersects Fifth Avenue near that point.) It was built in 1863, operated as a theater from 1865 to 1908, ...
is considered the most successful of the lectures. He gave it at least two further times, including his last delivery in Philadelphia on April 14, 1890, just two years before his death.
Whitman said that he gave the lecture a total of thirteen times,
but later authors give varying numbersestimates range from five
to twenty. Eleven individual lectures have been identified:
Content
![Walt_Whitman_on_Abraham_Lincoln_announcement](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Walt_Whitman_on_Abraham_Lincoln_announcement.jpg)
Whitman was described by scholar
Merrill D. Peterson
Merrill Daniel Peterson (31 March 1921 – 23 September 2009) was a history professor at the University of Virginia and the editor of the prestigious Library of America edition of the selected writings of Thomas Jefferson. Peterson wrote several bo ...
as not being an orator "either in manner or appearance". Contemporary observers also described Whitman as a poor speaker, saying that his voice would become higher and "unnatural-sounding". However, other sources describe him as speaking in a low voice.
The lecture combined clippings of previously written material, such as the article Whitman had published on Lincoln's death in the ''New York Sun'', ''Memoranda During the War, The Bride of Gettysburg'' by
John Dunbar Hilton,
and some new content. In preparing for the lecture, Whitman also considered the story of
Demodocus, a divine bard portrayed in the ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...
''.
According to scholar Leslie Elizabeth Eckel, Whitman generally began by "downplaying his ability to handle the emotionally challenging task that lay before him". He then moved into describing the
rise in tensions leading up to the
1860 presidential election and America during the Civil War era. Then he would describe Lincoln's death, the main focus of the lecture. Whitman described
Ford's Theatre
Ford's Theatre is a theater located in Washington, D.C., which opened in August 1863. The theater is infamous for being the site of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the theater bo ...
and the assassination in vivid detail, as if he had been there. He identified the assassination as a force that would "condenseA nationality," equating Lincoln's killing to a sacrifice which would "cement
..the whole people."
Whitman brought a "reading book" with him to the lectures that contained fifteen poems he read at their conclusion. He often read his poem "
O Captain! My Captain!", 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
"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a myste ...
" by
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
, poems by
William Collins, and a translation of
Anacreon
Anacreon (; grc-gre, Ἀνακρέων ὁ Τήϊος; BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ...
's Ode XXXIII by
Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...
called "The Midnight Visitor".
Whitman revised the text of "The Midnight Visitor" that he delivered.
Reception
The lectures were popular and well received. Historian
Daniel Mark Epstein wrote, "
e speech was always a success, and in major cities it seldom failed to reap columns of publicity in the newspapers," and scholar Michael C. Cohen called Whitman's lecture his "most popular text". In 1988 professor Kerry C. Larson wrote that the "hackneyed" sentimentality of Whitman's lectures was indicative of a decline in his creativity.
Because tickets were generally too expensive for the working class to attend, the lectures were not attended by the common people. According to Blake, they instead allowed members of higher society to "pay homage to both the president and the poet". He emphasizes how Whitman used the lectures to connect America's love for Lincoln with his own poetry, namely ''Leaves of Grass''. Whitman's biographer
Justin Kaplan
Justin Daniel Kaplan (September 5, 1925 in Manhattan, New York City – March 2, 2014 in Cambridge, Massachusetts) was an American writer and editor. The general editor of ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' (16th and 17th eds.), he was best kno ...
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", while Reynolds describes Whitman's lectures as making him a household name.
Many audience members reported being moved to tears.
José Martí, a Cuban journalist who was present at one of the lectures, wrote a laudatory account of the lecture that was spread across Latin America. He described the crowd as listening "in religious silence, for its sudden grace notes, vibrant tones, hymnlike progress, and Olympian familiarity seemed at times the whispering of the stars." Stedman wrote that "Something of Lincoln himself seemed to pass into this man who loved and studied him." The poet Stuart Merrill said that Whitman's telling of the assassination convinced him that "I was there, the very thing happened to me. And this recital was as gripping as the messengers' reports in
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...
."
Whitman also used the lectures to further perception of himself as a "public historian". Promotional materials for the lecture often falsely claimed that Whitman had known well Lincoln and had been in Ford's Theatre upon the night of the assassination. An ad for his Elkton, Maryland, lecture in 1886 even said that Whitman had been in the room with Lincoln when he was shot. English scholar Gregory Eiselein contrasted Whitman's depiction of Lincoln's death in his lectures with that in his poem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." Whitman's lecture was intended to present a very factual account, in a tone that scholar Martin T. Buinicki has described as "pointedly historical". Conversely, "Lilacs" has what Eiselein describes as "musical, ethereal, often abstract,
ndheavily symbolized." Blake describes Whitman's lectures and the respect they received from high society as emphasizing a final "triumph" for Whitman, over the "slander and scorn" he had once experienced from the same group. He goes on to write that delivering the lecture every year became "vital to his permanent achievement of
ame #REDIRECT AME
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Notes
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External links
Daniel Mark Epstein on Walt Whitman's "The Death of Lincoln"Text of the "Death of Abraham Lincoln" lecture
{{Walt Whitman
19th-century speeches
Cultural depictions of Abraham Lincoln
Lists of speeches by speaker
Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln
Works by Walt Whitman
Lectures