Author Description

First published to wide critical acclaim in 1981, revised and expanded in 1998, and now re-issued as a corrected second edition (2014), this monumental anthology charts the ongoing American and international response to the legacy of the seminal poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892). Beginning with Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous 1855 letter ("I greet you at the beginning of a great career..."), this edition contains responses from Thoreau, Pound, Lawrence, Neruda, Borges, Ginsberg, Jordan, Duncan, Le Sueur, Rich, Snyder and Alexie, among many others "I know of no more convincing proof of Walt Whitman's impact upon the poetic mind (both at home and abroad) than this collection of tributes by poets -- in prose and verse" -- Gay Wilson Allen, The Solitary Singer. Includes 17 black & white photos.