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WALT WHITMAN'S WORLD AMERICA STILL NEEDS HIS POETRY

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From: The Boston Globe
Date: 20050703
Author:David S. Reynolds

This month marks the 150th anniversary of a landmark event in literary history: the publication of the first edition of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

When this thin volume, with its ornate green jacket, crude title page, and frontispiece showing the casually dressed Whitman, was advertised for sale on July 5, 1855, few could anticipate its tremendous impact on literature. The book met with sharp criticism. One reviewer, shocked by its sensual images, called it "a mass of stupid filth." Another, puzzled by its emotional intensity, said its author "must be some escaped lunatic, raving in ...

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