Literary society was not quite ready for Walt Whitman when his transformative loudness , Leaves of Grass , come out in 1855 . Whitman revised and expand the poetry collection throughout his life and it ’s now view an essential part of the American literary canyon . But when the collection was put out , the contemporary review weremore than doubting . One 1856 reappraisal intimate that Whitman be sent to an mad asylum , and stated that its author would “ not assist in extending the sale of this intensely vulgar , nay , absolutelybeastlybook , by telling our reader where it may be purchase ” [ PDF ] . As belatedly as the 1880s , a writer forThe Atlanticdecried its “ tedious and incapacitated prose . ”
But Whitman did get a few friendly reviews . Some of them , in fact , came from his own playpen . In hope of bolstering sales , the writer reviewed his own Quran , anonymously publishing bootlick secondment of his own committal to writing .
Image Credit : Library of Congress
One , a September 1855 piece in theUnited States Review , stag exactly how extremely Walt thought of himself . “ An American bard at last ! ” it declared .
Here ’s how Whitman describes himself in the reassessment .
“ His scope of life is the amplest of any yet in philosophy . He is the true sensitive , ” he continues . “ He recognizes no annihilation , or death , or loss of identity . He is the largest lover and sympathiser that has appeared in literature .
Whitman would try out himself suitable of the “ American bard ” title of respect in due clock time , but not that many masses seem to have believe his rave review . “ plainly , they did not aid sales much , ” harmonise to Whitman scholarIvan Marki .
" Though no reliable record have hold up , probably very few copies of the book were sold , ” Marki explain inWalt Whitman : An cyclopedia . “ A few review appear , some of them pick out and sympathetic , but most of them more or less bewildered by the new oeuvre and also appall by the sexual frankness of some of its passages . ”
Lucky for Whitman , over time , other critics get down to review his book favourably , so that he did n’t have to keep tooting his own horn .
you’re able to translate his 1855 self - review in full over at theWhitman Archive .
