Walt Whitman's New Orleans : sidewalk sketches & newspaper rambles / edited, with an introduction, by Stefan Schöberlein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892, author.

Contributor:

Schöberlein, Stefan, editor.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Series:

Library of Southern civilization

Standardized Title:

Works. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892--Homes and haunts--Louisiana--New Orleans.

Whitman, Walt.

Crescent City (New Orleans, La.).

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892.

New Orleans (La.)--In literature.

New Orleans (La.).

Homes.

Literature.

Louisiana--New Orleans.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 170 illustrations, map, portrait ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2022]

Summary:

"Scholars and biographers often mention Walt Whitman's short stint in New Orleans-three months in the spring of 1848-as a crucial moment of literary and personal development, with some of the author's most celebrated poems showing distinct influences of the city. Working for the local newspaper the Daily Crescent, the poet who was still seven years away from publishing the first edition of his Leaves of Grass would spend his afternoons, as he did in New York, strolling through the multiracial city to absorb and then write about his impressions. While Whitman's southern sojourn has become a core component of the narrative around the poet, his actual writings produced in the Crescent City have remained relatively obscure. Walt Whitman's New Orleans is the first book to collect his writings about the city, appearing more than 150 years after his trip south. Edited by Whitman expert Stefan Schöberlein, the volume builds on cutting-edge research that uncovers a previously unknown collection of short prose sketches that Whitman wrote for the Crescent after he left New Orleans. The result is a volume of humorous glimpses of city life steeped in the tropes and attitudes of the 1840s. These short pieces form a collage of impressions by a 'pedestrian,' as Whitman identifies himself in one piece, who provides interested readers with what he variously called 'Peeps,' 'Sketches,' or 'Glimpses' culled from his visits to the French Quarter, the St. Louis Hotel, Lafayette Square, and other central locales. Organized around the complete run of a humorous series titled 'Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee,' Walt Whitman's New Orleans pairs his writings with nineteenth-century illustrations that capture views of the city and caricatures of the characters that populate his prose renderings. The volume also offers new discoveries about the Crescent staff and contextual information about the social, political, and cultural currents circulating throughout antebellum New Orleans, including their impact on Whitman's own evolving beliefs"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: Crossing the Alleghanies

Cincinnati and Louisville

Western Steamboats

The Ohio

The Mississippi at Midnight

SKETCHES OF NEW ORLEANS

Novelties in New Orleans

Firemen Celebration

The Sabbath

Daguerreotype Portraits

"The Season," Hereabouts

Mardi Gras

The Habitants of Hotels

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Peter Funk, Esq

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Miss Dusky Grisette

Celebration of St. Patrick's Day

Hebrew Benevolent Association Ball

Health and Cleanliness

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Daggerdraw Bowieknife, Esq

New Orleans Sabbath Recreations

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: John). Jinglebrain

The Nights of New Orleans

In the Wrong Box

Serious but Ludicrous Accident

New Orleans in Mud

Razors, Reason, and Resolution

Visit of a Distinguished Personage

Non-Ascension of the Balloon

Who Shall Wear Motley?

Day after the Election!

Strangers, Beware!

The Balloon Blow Up

Bouquets

Lafayette Square

Vagrants

The Old Cathedral

The "News Boys." A Street Conversation

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Timothy Goujon, V.O.N.O.

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Mrs. Giddy Gay Butterfly

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Patrick McDray

A Walk about Town: By a Pedestrian

To the Seekers of Pleasure

Carrollton

Steam Stronger Than Shot

A Sabbath Sketch: Or, Going to and Coming from Church

Public Squares

A Night at the Terpsichore Ball: By "You Know Who"

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Doctor Sangrado Snipes

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Old Benjamin Broekindown

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Samuel Sensitive, Part I

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Samuel Sensitive, Part II

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Miss Virginity Roseblossom

Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee: Ephraim Broadhorn. A Flatboatman from Kentucky

EPILOGUE: MEMORIES OF NEW ORLEANS

Manuscript Fragment about New Orleans (ca. 1848, with Later Additions)

New Orleans in 1848 (New Orleans Picayune, January 25, 1887)

Calamus Leaves (Manuscript)

APPENDIX A LETTERS FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON ("JEFF") WHITMAN TO HIS FAMILY

Mid-February: Trip to New Orleans and First Impressions

March 14: Employment at the Crescent and City Perambulations

March 27: Daily Life

April 23: Sickness and Home-Sickness

APPENDIX B ADDITIONAL EDITORIALS

Model Artists

General Taylor at the Theatre

A Question of Propriety

University Studies.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 161-162) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Walt Whitman's New Orleans

ISBN:

9780807176825

0807176826

OCLC:

1252739006