Lincoln and Whitman
General studies of Whitman abound. These are some of the
more recent books that you may want to consult:
Loving, Jerome. Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
Myerson, Joel, ed. Whitman in His Own Time: A Biographical
Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Memoirs,
and Interviews by Friends and Associates. Detroit:
Omnigraphics, 1991.
Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman. Oxford; New
York: Oxford University Press, 2005. A brief but very
useful study.
_____. Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography.
New York: Knopf, 1995.
_____. A Historical Guide to Walt Whitman.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
This pair of books is especially useful for examining
Whitman’s work on Lincoln:
Coyle, William. The Poet and The President: Whitman's
Lincoln Poems. New York: Odyssey Press,1962. This
volume contains the four poems that Whitman grouped
under the title “Memories of President Lincoln,”
along with source materials pertaining to the relationships
between the two men, and critical and biographical writings.
Epstein, Daniel Mark. Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel
Lives in Civil War Washington. New York: Ballantine
Books, 2004.
For your purposes, the best compilation of Whitman’s
writings is probably Justin Kaplan’s edition of:
Whitman’s Poetry and Prose. New York:
Library of America College Edition, 1999.
The online Whitman Archive, edited by Ed Folsom and
Kenneth Price, is a gold mine. You’ll find an
excellent Whitman biography, manuscripts, online text
of published works, images of Whitman at different periods
in his life – and much more.
http://www.whitmanarchive.org/
The PBS "Civil War"series Website provides
a good lesson plan on "Walt Whitman, Patriot Poet,"
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/classroom/lesson_whitman.html
In addition to the online Whitman Archive, you can
find online versions of Whitman’s best-known “Lincoln”
poems on the Bartleby.com site:
“O Captain, My Captain”:
http://www.bartleby.com/142/193.html
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed”:
http://www.bartleby.com/142/192.html
The same site carries Whitman’s April 1865 notes
on Lincoln’s death:
http://www.bartleby.com/229/1084.html
