Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song

"This is a book to browse, to study, to cherish; for, as much as any one book can, it lets the reader know who and what Whitman was and still is―a vital presence."―Choice, Outstanding Academic Book citation "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. Its value is aesthetic, critical, and historical, with a fine scholarly and perceptive introduction by Ed Folsom and a chronological bibliography of poems to and about Whitman."--Gay Wilson Allen First published to wide critical acclaim in 1981, now re-issued as an expanded and updated third edition to celebrate Whitman's 200th birthday, 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 H. D. Thoreau, Ezra Pound, D. H. Lawrence, Pablo Neruda, Allen Ginsberg, June Jordan, Robert Duncan, Meridel LeSueur, Adrienne Rich, Gary Snyder, C. K. Williams, Martin Espada, Mark Doty, Meena Alexander, Julia Alvarez, among many others.

About the Author :
Jim Perlman is founding editor and publisher of Holy Cow! Press. Begun in 1977, his press has published more than 125 books. He holds an MA from The University of Iowa where he attended the first Whitman Seminar chaired by Ed Folsom that became the inspiration for Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song. Please visit www.holycowpress.org. Ed Folsom is the Roy J. Carver Professor of English at the University of Iowa, where he edits the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, co-directs the online Walt Whitman Archive, and edits the Whitman Series for the University of Iowa Press. He is the author or editor of numerous books and essays on Whitman and other American writers. Dan Campion, author of Peter De Vries and Surrealism (Bucknell University Press, 1995) and Calypso (Syncline Press, 1981), lives in Iowa City, Iowa. He holds degrees from The University of Chicago and the Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1989. He has contributed poetry to many magazines, including Able Muse, Light, Measure, The Midwest Quarterly, The North American Review, Poet Lore, Poetry, Rolling Stone, Shenandoah, and Think.

Review :
"This new edition of poetic tributes to Walt Whitman exhibits the increasingly diverse response to Whitman in America and worldwide. Published on the 200th anniversary of Whitman's birth, this is simply the best testimony we have to Whitman's poetic achievement and international legacy."--Betsy Erkkila, author of Whitman the Political Poet "Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song offers a cache of poems and essays by poets echoing, challenging, refuting, remaking, and adoring Whitman in unpredictable ways. Newly expanded, this renowned collection now includes culturally diverse responses from the 2000s. With wit, range, and irreverence, an array of 'poets to come' help us see through (in both senses) Whitman's words as we assess him, his cultural legacy, and the prospects for a tolerant nation of nations he hoped was ever becoming. In a time of threat to such hopes, this book could not be more welcome."--Kenneth M. Price, author of Whitman in Washington (forthcoming, Oxford UP) "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. Its value is aesthetic, critical, and historical, with a fine scholarly and perceptive introduction by Ed Folsom and a chronological bibliography of poems to and about Whitman. If the list is not complete (for all countries), it is nearly so; the most comprehensive in print. This book makes a major contribution to Walt Whitman criticism and scholarship. On second thought, I'll call it colossal!"―Gay Wilson Allen "This is a book to browse, to study, to cherish; for, as much as any one book can, it lets the reader know who and what Whitman was and still is―a vital presence."―Choice, Outstanding Academic Book citation "Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song measures not only the great shadow that Whitman casts over 20th century poetry but also the usefulness of the kind of small press operation that produced this remarkable collection."―Jerome Loving, American Literary Scholarship "The authenticity of Whitman's vocation accounts for why his admirers have always responded in extraordinary ways to him.... Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song, a remarkable anthology edited by Jim Perlman, Ed Folsom, and Dan Campion, is a record of precisely this.... What is striking is the continuity of love expressed in all this―gushing, reserved, off the wall, begrudging, levelheaded, scholarly, ecstatic, yet love nonetheless."―Village Voice Literary Supplement "Sometimes readers open literary anthologies only to find jewels in disarray.... Not so this fine volume from Holy Cow! Press. Out of America's heartland, the terrain celebrated in Whitman's 'Song of the Prairies, ' comes one of the most vital anthologies of recent time. The avowals and expressions in this fascinating anthology record the liberating power for other poets of Whitman's compassionate vision of a universalized self."―Christian Science Monitor "Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song is the most impressive Whitman collection ever made, and there have been many, many of them."―C. Carroll Hollis "The selections are varied, strong, and often surprising and offer overwhelming proof of Whitman's triumphant achievement."--Justin Kaplan, Walt Whitman: A Life