1850,
but no one has agreed with him; Dr. Bucke guessed 1856, but most estimates
have been a later date. Seeing this photo late in his life, WW exclaimed,
"How shaggy! looks like a returned Californian, out of the mines,
or Coloradoan," but he was fascinated with "the expression of
benignity" that shone through, though he felt "such benignity,
such sweetness, such satisfiedness--it does not belong. I know it often
appears-- but that's the trick of the camera, the photographer." WW
called it his "young man" picture ("when did I not look
old? At twenty-five or twenty-six they used already to remark it"),
and claimed "it is me, me, unformed, undeveloped--hits off phases
not common in my photos." He described his physique at the time: "I
was very much slenderer then: weighed from one hundred and fifty-five to
one hundred and sixty-five pounds: had kept that weight for about thirty
years: then got heavier." Whitman was amused by the clothing--"how
natural the clothes! . . . the suit was a beautiful misfit, as usual, eh?"--and
he was impressed with "its calm don't-care-a-damnativeness--its go-to-
hell-and-find-outativeness: it has that air strong, yet is not impertinent:
defiant: yet it is genial." WW was mystified by this portrait--he
began calling it "the mysterious photograph"-- when he first
saw it in 1889: "When it could have been taken-- by whom--where--I
cannot even guess. . . . it's a devilish, tantalizing mystery. . . ."