Walt Whitman and the World
“A simply splendid collection of responses to Whitman's poetry in a great diversity of voices, forms, and nationalities. The spirit of the performance is—what else?—Whitmanian, grandly and lovingly executed.”—Nineteenth-Century Literature
“An extraordinary book in both ambition and execution, edited by two of the most distinguished Whitman scholars representing the older and younger generations. The book shows the American poet of self and democracy, some 150 years after he launched his spiritual journey, still sauntering down that open road.”—James E. Miller, Jr., University of Chicago
“This book brings together the best critics and the most representative views of Whitman from around the globe. Its internationality reflects the poet's own grand ideas about democracy and diversity.”—Jerome Loving, Texas A&M University
Celebrating the various ethnic traditions that melded to create what we now call American literature, Whitman did his best to encourage an international reaction to his work. But even he would have been startled by the multitude of ways in which his call has been answered. By tracking this wholehearted international response and reconceptualizing American literature, Walt Whitman and the World demonstrates how various cultures have appropriated an American writer who ceases to sound quite so narrowly American when he is read into other cultures' traditions.