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The American poet
Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...
gave a
lecture A lecture (from ) is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history, background, theo ...
on
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
, the 16th
president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
, 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 The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
and often included readings of poems such as "
O Captain! My Captain! "O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865 about Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the death of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Well received upon publication, the poem was Whitman's first to be Anth ...
". The deliveries were generally well received, and cemented Whitman's public image as an authority on Lincoln. Whitman greatly admired Lincoln and was moved by his assassination in 1865 to write several poems in the President's memory. The idea of a lecture on the topic was first proposed 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, first spoke on the death of Lincoln in New York City's Steck Hall on April 14 the following year. Over the next eleven years, he delivered the lecture at least ten, and possibly as many as twenty, more times. 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 presentation. Whitman's biographer
Justin Kaplan Justin Daniel Kaplan (September 5, 1925– March 2, 2014) was an American writer and editor. The general editor of ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' (16th and 17th eds.), he was best known as a biographer, particularly of Samuel Clemens, Linc ...
writes that this delivery and the reception that followed was the closest Whitman came to "social eminence on a large scale", 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, but at another time criticized it as "too much the New York Jamboree". He gave the lecture for the last time in Philadelphia in 1890, two years before his death.


Background

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...
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. After self-publishing it in 1855, he spent most of his professional life writing, revising, and expanding the collection until his death in 1892. Either six or nine separa ...
''. The brief volume was controversial, with critics particularly objecting to Whitman's blunt depictions of sexuality and what the University of Virginia Libraries has described as its "obvious homoerotic overtones". At the start of the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, 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 List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...
. He also volunteered in army hospitals as a nurse. Although they never met, Whitman saw
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
several times between 1861 and 1865. The first time was when Lincoln stopped in New York City in 1861 on his way to Washington. Whitman greatly admired the President, writing in October1863, "I love the President personally," and later declaring 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 shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play '' Our American Cousin'' at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play, L ...
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". Whitman himself wrote four poems in tribute to the President: "
O Captain! My Captain! "O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865 about Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the death of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Well received upon publication, the poem was Whitman's first to be Anth ...
", "
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 ...
", " Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day", and " This Dust Was Once the Man". In 1875 he published ''Memoranda During the War'', which included a narrative of Lincoln's death, and the following year he published an article on Lincoln's death in ''
The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative Online newspaper, news website and former newspaper based in Manhattan, Manhattan, New York. From 2009 to 2021, it operated as an (occasional and erratic) onlin ...
''. Though Whitman also considered writing a book on Lincoln, he never did.


Whitman and lectures

In the mid-19th century,
public lecture A public lecture (also known as an open lecture) is one means employed for educating the public. Gresham College, in London, has been providing free public lectures since its founding in 1597 through the will of Sir Thomas Gresham. The Royal S ...
s in the United States became regarded as a platform for well-known Americans to reach large numbers of people. Because of this, the lecture became directly associated with celebrity and fame. By the 1870s, Whitman had long sought to be a lecturer, writing several lectures and delivering one as early as 1851, at the Brooklyn Art Union. 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 editor
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 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. In March1879, a group of Whitman's friends, including Gilder, Burroughs, and the jeweler John H. Johnston, began planning a lecture again. As part of the preparations for the first lecture, Whitman worked his ''New York Sun'' article into a format for reading aloud.


Deliveries

Between 1879 and 1890 Whitman gave a 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 last years of his life, before his death in 1892. The first lecture was given in Steck Hall, New York City, on April 14, 1879. Whitman was unable to find further bookings 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 every subsequent delivery. Whitman gave the lecture again in 1881. No records show him delivering it in the next five years, but he gave it at least four times in 1886, and several times in the four years after. Whitman's April 15, 1887, lecture at Madison Square Theatre is considered the most successful of the deliveries, largely because it was attended by many prominent societal figures. He gave the lecture at least two further times, including his last delivery in Philadelphia on April 14, 1890, just two years before his death. The text of the lecture was published in Whitman's ''Complete Prose Works''. Whitman also sent a written copy of the lecture to his friend Thomas Donaldson in 1886. Donaldson, in turn, sent the lecture to the author
Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...
, who received it in 1894. Whitman said that he gave the lecture a total of thirteen times, but later scholars give varying numbersestimates range as high as twenty. Eleven individual deliveries have been identified:


Content

The scholar Merrill D. Peterson describes Whitman as not an orator "either in manner or appearance". Contemporary observers also described Whitman as a poor speaker, saying that his voice would become higher than normal during deliveries and describing it as "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 bard in Homer's ''
Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
'', who Whitman wrote "sings of the bloody war between the Greeks and Trojans". According to the 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 United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 6, 1860. The History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin emerged victoriou ...
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 1863. The theater is best known for being the site of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the theater box where ...
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 collection of fifteen poems with him to the lecture. He often read selections from the book at the lecture's conclusion. He frequently read his poem "
O Captain! My Captain! "O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written by Walt Whitman in 1865 about Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the death of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln. Well received upon publication, the poem was Whitman's first to be Anth ...
", 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 visit ...
" by
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
, poems by William Collins, and a translation of the ancient Greek poet
Anacreon Anacreon ( BC) was an Ancient 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 ancient Ionic dialect. Like all early ...
's Ode XXXIII by
Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852), was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist who was widely regarded as Ireland's "National poet, national bard" during the late Georgian era. The acclaim rested primarily on the popularity of his ''I ...
called "The Midnight Visitor". Whitman made his own alterations to the text of "The Midnight Visitor" that he read.


Reception

Deliveries of the lecture were popular and well received. 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. The literary scholar Michael C. Cohen called Whitman's lecture his "most popular text" and Reynolds describes Whitman's deliveries as making him a household name. Conversely, in 1988 the professor Kerry C. Larson wrote that the "hackneyed" sentimentality of the lecture was indicative of a decline in his creativity. Deliveries of the lecture were generally only attended by members of
high society High society, sometimes simply Society, is the behavior and lifestyle of people with the highest levels of wealth, power, fame and social status. It includes their related affiliations, social events and practices. Upscale social clubs were open ...
. 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''. Whitman's biographer
Justin Kaplan Justin Daniel Kaplan (September 5, 1925– March 2, 2014) was an American writer and editor. The general editor of ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'' (16th and 17th eds.), he was best known as a biographer, particularly of Samuel Clemens, Linc ...
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". Many audience members wrote positive accounts of hearing the lecture.
José Martí José Julián Martí Pérez (; 28 January 1853 – 19 May 1895) was a Cuban nationalism, nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in ...
, a Cuban journalist who was present at the 1887 lecture, wrote one such report that was spread across Latin America. He described the crowd as listening "in religious silence, for its sudden
grace note A grace note is a kind of music notation denoting several kinds of musical ornament (music), ornaments. It is usually printed smaller to indicate that it is melodically and harmonically nonessential. When occurring by itself, a single grace no ...
s, vibrant tones,
hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' d ...
like progress, and Olympian familiarity seemed at times the whispering of the stars". The poet
Edmund Clarence Stedman Edmund Clarence Stedman (October 8, 1833January 18, 1908) was an American poet, critic, essayist, banker, and scientist. Early life Edmund Clarence Stedman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on October 8, 1833; his father, Major Edmund Burke ...
wrote that " mething of Lincoln himself seemed to pass into this man who loved and studied him", and the poet Stuart Merrill said that Whitman's telling of the assassination convinced him that "I was there,
hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...
the very thing happened to me. And this recital was as gripping as the messengers' reports in
Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...
." Whitman also used the lecture to further perception of himself as a "public historian". 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. 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, ndheavily symbolized." 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 hitman'spermanent achievement of
ame #REDIRECT AME {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...
"


See also

*
Cultural depictions of Abraham Lincoln Since his Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, death in 1865, Abraham Lincoln has been an iconic American figure depicted, usually favorably or heroically, in many forms. Lincoln has often been portrayed by Hollywood, almost always in a flattering ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

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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

Untitled; notes on Whitman's "Lincoln lecture" with clippings and ephemera

Remembrance: Whitman's "The Death of Lincoln" and the By the People Whitman Campaign
{{Walt Whitman 1870s speeches 1880s speeches 1890s speeches Cultural depictions of Abraham Lincoln Lists of speeches by speaker Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln Works by Walt Whitman Lectures