The Whitman Revolution brings together a rich collection of Betsy Erkkila鈥檚 phenomenally influential essays that have been published over the years, along with two powerful new essays. Erkkila offers a moving account of the inseparable mix of the spiritual-sexual-political in Whitman and the absolute centrality of male-male connection to his work and thinking. Her work has been at the forefront of scholarship positing that Whitman鈥檚 songs are songs not only of workers and occupations but of sex and the body, homoeroticism, and liberation. What is more, Erkkila鈥檚 writing demonstrates that this sexuality and communal impulse is central to Whitman鈥檚 revolutionary poetry and his conception of democracy itself鈥攁n insight that was all but suppressed during the mid-twentieth century emergence of American literature as a field of study.
Highlights of this collection include Erkkila鈥檚 essays on pairings such as Marx and Whitman, Dickinson and Whitman, and Melville and Whitman. Across the volume, she demonstrates an international vision that highlights the place of Leaves of Grass within a global struggle for democracy. The Whitman Revolution is evidence of Erkkila鈥檚 remarkable ability to lead critical discussions, and marks an exciting event in Whitman studies.
鈥淚n this outstanding collection of essays, Betsy Erkkila situates Whitman within the global struggle for democracy, and confirms her place as the preeminent scholar of Whitman鈥檚 politics.鈥
鈥擪enneth M. Price, author, Whitman in Washington: Becoming the National Poet in the Federal City
