From the Field: Walt Whitman's Periodical Poetry

Belasco, Susan. "From the Field: Walt Whitman's Periodical Poetry." American Periodicals 14, no. 2 (2004): 247-59.

Type

journal

Genre

literary criticism

Abstract

Belasco traces Whitman's publication history in several prominent nineteenth-century periodicals and how these publications helped to promote Leaves of Grass. Belasco's article includes a lengthy section about publications in The Saturday Press. In her sixteenth footnote she includes the following list of poems published in The Saturday Press, with their later book publications noted as well:

"A Child's Reminiscence," The New-York Saturday Press, 24 December 1859,1.
"A Word Out of the Sea," Leaves of Grass (1860)
"Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," "Sea-Shore Memories" in Passage to India (1871) and in "Sea Drift," Leaves of Grass (1881)

"You and Me and To-Day," The New-York Saturday Press, 14 January 1860, 2.
"Chants Democratic 7," Leaves of Grass (1860)
"With Antecedents," Leaves of Grass (1867)

"Poemet," 28 January 1860, 2.
"Calamus No. 17," Leaves of Grass (1860)
"Of Him I Love Day and Night," Leaves of Grass (1867); slight changes in text in
"Passage to India," Leaves of Grass (1871)

"Poemet," 4 February 1860, 2.
"Calamus No. 40," Leaves of Grass (1860)
"That Shadow My Likeness," Leaves of Grass (1867); slight changes in text in
Leaves of Grass (1881)
"Leaves, 1, 2, 3," February 11, 1860, 2.

"Calamus No. 21," Leaves of Grass (1860)
"That Music Always Round Me," Leaves of Grass (1867); in "Whispers of
Heavenly Death," Leaves of Grass (1860)
"Calamus No. 37," Leaves of Grass (1860)
"A Leaf for Hand in Hand," Leaves of Grass (1867)
"Enfans d'Adam No. 15," Leaves of Grass (1860)
"As Adam Early in the Morning," Leaves of Grass (1867)

People Mentioned in this Work

Aldrich, Thomas [pages: 252]

Belasco mentions that his poetry was printed in Clapp's columns of "original" poems, which usually appeared on the first page of the Saturday Press (252).

Howells, William [pages: 252]

Howells' poetry appeared in the Saturday Press.

The Saturday Press [pages: 249,251,252-253]

Belasco notes that Whitman argued for his theme of "Home Literature" in an unsigned article that appeared in the New York Saturday Press in 1860. "Whitman urged Americans to compose 'Our own song, free, joyous, masterful." Whitman also argued that his readers should pay attention to American writers: "You, bold American! And ye future two hundred millions bold Americans, can surely never live, for instances, entirely satisfied and grow to your full stature, on what the importations hither of foreign bards, dead or alive, provide--nor on what is echoing here the letter and spirit of the foreign bards" (249).

Between December 1850 and June 1860, the New York Saturday Press published "A Child's Reminiscence" (later "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking") and "You and Me and To-day" as part of Whitman's promotional efforts for the third edition of Leaves of Grass (May 1860). Belasco notes that Jerome Loving observed that "the Press published a total of seven poems that would be a part of the 1860 edition, including some of the Calamus poems." Belasco notes that the publication in the Press and other venues like the Atlantic Monthly were "something of a coup for Whitman--both were powerful literary magazines that published new American writers" (251).

In response to the first-page printing of "A Child's Reminiscence" in the December 24, 1859, edition of the Saturday Press, the poem was attacked in the Cincinnati Daily Commercial. The Saturday Press reprinted the attack and Whitman's anonymous response "All about a Mockingbird," which defended his poetry and promoted the third edition of Leaves of Grass (252).

Belasco claims that "'A Child's Reminiscence' and the other poems published in the Saturday Press offer a fascinating lesson in Whitman's--and Clapp's--efforts to promote Whitman's name and book" (253).