Whitman at War
July 4th, 2009
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In 1862, poet Walt Whitman went to Fredericksburg, Virginia, searching for his brother George who had been wounded in a Civil War battle. Whitman was so moved by the carnage he found that he worked as a nurse for the rest of the war. Mara Scanlon and Brady Earnhart (University of Mary Washington) say Whitman was helping heal wounded soldiers in the same way he hoped his poetry could heal the war-torn nation. Also featured: This is the 200th anniversary of the birth of 19th-century poet and author Edgar Allan Poe. Jerome McGann (University of Virginia) says Poe, whose influence is probably unmatched by any American author, was more charming and humorous than his famous dark fiction suggests.
Want to dig deeper? Explore Encyclopedia Virginia:
First Battle of Manassas (1861)
Battle of Fredericksburg (1862)
And visit the online exhibit: From Out of that Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe
2 Responses to “Whitman at War”
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Whitman at War « Digital Storytelling Archive :
[...] 4th of July, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities radio program “With Good Reason” aired an interview with UMW’s own Mara Scanlon and Brady Earnhart on the topic of Walt Whitman during the Civil War. [...]
-- April 28, 2010 @ 9:11 pm -
Emily D. please don’t disappoint me | Dickinson and H.D. :
[...] you shall assume”). Through her seminar and through a much more concentrated exploration of Whitman, his compassion as a man and poet became more meaningful and much more obvious.* I hope my [...]
-- February 21, 2011 @ 1:29 am
