While gratefully acknowledging the assistance of all these and others unnamed, I confess that I am alone responsible for the general accuracy of my statements, and the book's point of view, and I wish especially to relieve the personal friends of Whitman from any responsibility for the hypothesis relating to his sojourn in the South, beyond what is stated in the Appendix. To all actual sins of commission and omission I plead guilty, trusting that for the sympathetic reader they may eventually be blotted out in the light which, obscured though it be, still shines upon my pages from the personality of Walt Whitman. H. B. B. LONDON, _January, 1905_. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE vii TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED IN THE NOTES xvii INTRODUCTION: WHITMAN'S AMERICA xix CHAP. I. THE WHITMAN'S OF WEST HILLS 1 II. BOYHOOD IN BROOKLYN 10 III. TEACHER AND JOURNALIST 28 IV. ROMANCE (1848) 46 V. ILLUMINATION 56 VI. THE CARPENTER 79 VII. WHITMAN'S MANIFESTO 95 VIII. THE MYSTIC 110 IX. "YEAR OF METEORS" 134 X. THE TESTAMENT OF A COMRADE 148 XI. AMERICA AT WAR 171 XII. THE PROOF OF COMRADESHIP 190 XIII. A WASHINGTON CLERK 205 XIV. FRIENDS AND FAME 221 XV. ILLNESS 247 XVI. CONVALESCENCE 258 XVII. THE SECOND BOSTON EDITION 278 XVIII. AMONG THE PROPHETS 289 XIX. HE BECOMES A HOUSEHOLDER 301 XX. AT MICKLE STREET 314 XXI. "GOOD-BYE, MY FANCY" 325 APPENDIX A 347 APPENDIX B 349 INDEX 351 METHUEN'S CATALOGUE OF BOOKS TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE WALT WHITMAN AT 35, from a daguerrotype _Frontispiece_ in possession of Mr. J. H. Johnston HIS MOTHER, from a daguerrotype in possession of Mr. Traubel 6 WEST HILLS: THE WHITMAN HOUSE FROM THE LANE (1904) 8 W. W.'S FATHER 14 WEST HILLS: HOUSE FROM YARD 28 NEW ORLEANS ABOUT 1850 48 R. W. EMERSON 92 W. W. AT 40, from a photo, in the possession of Mr. D. McKay 140