Read by Henry Strozier

For the Whitman bicentennial, a delightful keepsake edition of the incomparable wisdom of America's greatest poet, distilled from his fascinating late-in-life conversations with Horace Traubel Toward the end of his life, Walt Whitman was visited almost daily at his home in Camden, New Jersey, by the young poet and social reformer Horace Traubel. After each visit, Traubel meticulously recorded their conversation, transcribing with such sensitivity that Whitman's friend John Burroughs remarked that he felt he could almost hear the poet breathing. In Walt Whitman Speaks, acclaimed author Brenda Wineapple draws from Traubel's extensive interviews an extraordinary gathering of Whitman's observations that conveys the core of his ethos and vision. Here is Whitman the sage, champion of expansiveness and human freedom. Here, too, is the poet's more personal side-his vivid memories of Thoreau, Emerson, and Lincoln, his literary judgments on writers such as Shakespeare, Goethe, and Tolstoy, and his expressions of hope in the democratic promise of the nation he loved. The result is a keepsake edition to touch the soul, capturing the distilled wisdom of America's greatest poet. Introductionsub- Ralph...sub- Nor...sub- Traubel...NatureThe Human HeartWritingWriterssub- John Miltonsub- William Shakespearesub- Samuel Johnsonsub- James Boswellsub- Voltairesub- Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseausub- Robert Burns...sub- Heinrich Heine...sub- Johann Wolfgang von Goethesub- Sir Walter Scottsub- James Fenimore Coopersub- William Blake...sub- Percy Bysshe Shelleysub- John Keats and Lord Byron...sub- Edgar Allan Poe...sub- William Cullen Bryantsub- JOhn Greenleaf Whittier...sub- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow...sub- Victor Hugo...sub- Nthaniel Hawthorne...sub- Nathaniel Hawthorne...sub- Bronson Alcott...sub- Ralph Waldo Emersonsub- Henry David Thoreau...sub- James Russell Lowellsub- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr...sub- Lafcadio Hearn, George Washington Cable, Sir Walter Scott, James Fenimore Coopersub- Thomas Carlyle...sub- Alfred, Lord Tennyson...sub- John Ruskin...sub- Henry James, Sr....sub- William Dean Howells and Henry James...46:29.833sub- Mathew Arnold...sub- Robert Browning...sub- Robert Browning...sub- Robert Browning...sub- Algernon Swinburne...sub- Mark Twain...sub- Mark Twain...sub- Mark Twain...sub- John Burroughssub- John Burroughssub- John Burroughssub- George Eliot...sub- Leo Tolstoy...sub- Russian Literature...Emile Zola...sub- Emile Zola...sub- Oscar WildeReadingLeaves of GrassMy PoetryLiteratureCriticsArt and ArtistsSelf-RelianceEgotismSelf-ReflectionWomenLoveSexFriendshipDemocracyAmericaThe Civil WarLincolnHeroesHistoryBiographyPolitics and Politicianssub- Aaron Burrsub- Zachary Taylorsub- Horace Greeleysub- Charles Sumnersub- Andrew Johnsonsub- Ulysses S. Grantsub- Benjamin HarrisonRadicalsInternationalismScienceReligionMystery, Faith, and the UniverseImmortalityMy PhilosophySpiritualitySuccessAging "A treasure of Walt unvarnished, reflective, and still firing on all cylinders into his seventies…Endlessly quotable and perfect for dipping into and savoring." "Brenda Wineapple's pithy volume, in its bare-bones efficiency, allows us to appreciate…the best of Whitman's off-the-cuff remarks."

Mode of access: World Wide Web