It is amazing to consider how much earth shattering
literature was generated in America between a handful of writers who all knew
each other extremely well, visited each other often, and for all extents and
purposes were neighbors. Such a thing hasn't happened since and was
considerably rare in any happenings before. You might have to go all the way
back to the Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley relationships to find anything
remotely similar.
Whitman, Thoreau, Emerson, Alcott, & Hawthorne -- all
knew each other. (Later on we add
brothers William James, the psychologist and Henry James, the novelist into
this mix.) With the exception of Whitman, they were all neighbors. Thoreau
used to look after little Louise May Alcott from time to time; he house sat for
Emerson when he traveled. This group went to weddings together, funerals
together, and they advocated for each other's publications.
Whitman was the lone outsider and although his relationship
with the Concord transcendentalists would smooth out over time, he earned the
rebuke of Emerson early in their relationship by quoting from a private letter Emerson wrote him in the newspaper, and by using an actual quote from that letter on the spine of
Leaves of Grass (2nd Edition) without Emerson's permission. A gutsy move and the critics hounded him for it and it nearly cost Whitman any sort of relationship with the Concord writers.
Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau met one time in
November of 1856. Amos Bronson Alcott, who I blogged about below, took Thoreau
to Whitman in hopes of introducing the two men. Oh to have been a fly on that
wall as these two men locked eyes!
Listen to how Bronson Alcott describes the meeting between
Whitman and Thoreau in his journal entry:
"I hoped to put him
[Walt Whitman] in communication direct with Thoreau, and tried my hand a little
after we came down stairs and sat in the parlor below; but each seemed planted
fast in reserves, surveying the other curiously, — like two beasts, each
wondering what the other would do, whether to snap or run; and it came to no
more than cold compliments between them."
Wow, what a description. Alcott's journals don't usually
contain much embellishment or over-description, but this particular passage
stands out. The meeting must have had quite an impact on Alcott to have
described it in such a way. He goes on in the journal entry to wonder if
perhaps Walt had met his match, or his equal in the young Thoreau.
Two men in a locked stare, each sizing the other up, neither
willing to divulge too much information and so it came to "no more than
cold compliments between them." One wonders what each thought of the
other. They exchanged not only looks, but books. Walt gave Henry a copy of his
2nd edition Leaves of Grass.
Three short weeks later, Thoreau had read the entire thing
and in this letter to a Unitarian pastor he says:
“That Walt Whitman,
of whom I wrote to you, is the most interesting fact to me at the present. I
have just read his 2nd edition (which he gave me) and it has done me more good
than any reading for a long time… there are 2 or 3 pieces in the book which are
disagreeable to say the least, simply sensual. He does not celebrate love at
all. It is as if the beasts spoke….
I do not believe that
all the sermons so called that have been preached in this land put together are
equal to it for preaching… We ought to rejoice greatly in him. He occasionally
suggests something a little more than human. Since I have seen him, I find that
I am not disturbed by any brag or egoism in his book. He may turn out the least
braggart of all, having a better right to be confident.”
Seems as though the old gray poet had quite the effect on
Thoreau… six years later Thoreau would die of tuberculosis at the age of 44. We
can only speculate what more he would have said about Whitman.
So how exactly did Walt feel about Henry? It would take
almost twenty years, but Whitman eventually visited Alcott and Emerson in
Concord. In his Specimen Days journal,
Whitman would recount visiting Thoreau’s grave and walking the shores of Walden
Pond. Whitman, like so many other travelers over time, would place a small
stone of remembrance at the cabin site where Thoreau lived during the writing
of Walden.
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Stones of Remembrance @ Thoreau's Cabin Site Is one of these stones Whitman's? |
I think the respect was mutual. And the locked stare between
these two alpha male authors was quite real… each sizing up the other, both
prepared to acknowledge the human propensity to live as animal and as eternal soul.
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