Campion Dan - Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song

I know of no more convincing proof of Walt Whitmans impact upon the poetic mind (both at home and abroad) than this collection of tributes by poetsin 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, Ill 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 isa 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 Whitmans 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 thisgushing, 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 Americas heartland, the terrain celebrated in Whitmans 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 Whitmans 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

We gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint materials from the following sources:

Defending Walt Whitman by Sherman Alexie. From The Summer of Black Widows, copyright 1996 by Sherman Alexie and reprinted by permission of Hanging Loose Press.

Ode to Walt Whitman by Stephen Vincent Bent. From Selected Works of Stephen Vincent Bent (Holt, Rinehart & Winston) copyright 1935 by Stephen Vincent Bent and renewed 1963 by Thomas C. Bent, Stephanie B. Mahin, and Rachel Bent Lewis. Reprinted by permission of Brandt & Brandt Literary Agents, Inc.

Song of Myself: Intention and Substance (an excerpt) by John Berryman. From The Freedom of the Poet, copyright 1976 by Kate Berryman and reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.

Despair by John Berryman. From Love & Fame, copyright 1970 by John Berryman and reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.

A Note on Whitman by Jorge Luis Borges. From Other Inquisitions 1937-1952, trans. Ruth Sims, copyright 1964 by the University of Texas Press.

Camden, 1892 by Jorge Luis Borges, trans. Richard Howard and Cesar Rennert. From Selected Poems 1923-1967, ed. Norman DiGiovanni, copyright 1972 by Delacorte Press.

Whitman by Witter Bynner. From A Canticle of Pan, copyright 1920 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright renewed 1948 by Witter Bynner. Reprinted with permission of the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, Inc.

Walt Whitman by Emanuel Carnevali. From Poetry 14, no. 2 (May 1919), copyright 1919 by The Modern Poetry Association. Reprinted by permission of John F. Nims, Editor of Poetry.

Cape Hatteras by Hart Crane. From The Bridge, copyright 1933, 1958, 1970 by Liveright Publishing Corporation. Reprinted by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Introduction to Whitman Selected by Robert Creeley by Robert Creeley. From Was That A Real Poem & Other Essays, by Robert Creeley. Copyright 1979 by Robert Creeley and reprinted by permission of Four Seasons Foundation.

Hopkins to Whitman: from The Lost Correspondence by Philip Dacey first appeared in Poetry Northwest.

Walt Whitman by Edward Dahlberg. From Cipangos Hinder Door, copyright 1965 by the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas. Reprinted by permission of the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, and the Estate of Edward Dahlberg.