Walter Lewin.
Academy 33
(30 June 1888), 441-2.
A complete edition of Whitman's prose writings in the useful and convenient "Camelot" series would be very acceptable; and, as one more volume would secure this, I hope the publisher will see his way to it. There is a suggestion of incompleteness about this otherwise excellent series. The number of volumes of selections included in it seems rather excessive. It provides the British public with admirable samples of many authors, but even the British public cannot live well on samples alone. Complete sets of Landor, Swift, Leigh Hunt, and the rest, would, of course, be out of the question in such a series; but it might sometimes be better to give one complete work of an author than cuttings from half a dozen. At any rate, in the case of Whitman, the whole of his prose works are within reach; and, as the two volumes already issued omit several important pieces, there is a special reason why a third and concluding volume should follow. Perhaps the very best piece of prose from Whitman's pen is the preface to the first edition (1855) of Leaves of Grass. Much of the substance of it appeared in another form in the second and subsequent editions, chiefly in the pieces which now bear the titles "Song of the Answerer" and "By Blue Ontario's Shore." It was, however, never reproduced in its original shape until 1868, when Mr. W. M. Rossetti gave an incomplete version of it in his English volume of Selections. In 1881, at the suggestion of the late Thomas Dixon, of Sunderland (to whom Ruskin's letters - entitled Time and Tide - "to a working man of Sunderland" were addressed), and, by permission of the author, I myself reprinted this preface unmutilated; and Whitman includes it in his Specimen Days and Collect. But, for some reason or another, it does not appear in either of the "Camelot" volumes. Other valuable prefaces and essays are also missing, quite enough in quantity, and quite good enough, to make a volume. Perhaps author, editor, and publisher, will consider the suggestion.
Leaving now the omissions, we find there is plenty of excellent matter in the present volume. Next to the "Preface" above named, "Democratic Vistas" is quite the best thing Whitman has produced in prose. Whatever may be said for the ge-nius that created the peculiar style of Leaves of Grass (and, for my part, I think a great deal may be said on this point) Whitman's essays do not mark him out as a master of style in prose. They are fittingly described by a favourite word of his own - jottings. But what they may lack in style is more than compensated by the abundance of thought they contain. Jottings so valuable will easily pass muster, even though they be not arranged in accordance with high literary art. "Democratic Vistas" consists of jottings on the future of democracy and, incidentally, on many topics not suggested in the title. The "other papers" in the volume consist of jottings, variously named, on Shakspere, on Tennyson, on Burns, and on other subjects, including the author himself and his writings. Yet it would be wrong not to correct my criticism about Whitman's style by pointing out that there are numerous passages scattered through all these essays which are remarkable not only for the ideas they express, but for the finished beauty of their form as well.
The poet of the modern has some interesting things to say about those poets of other days whose reign is now drawing to a close; the singers of "those beautiful, matchless songs adjusted to other lands than these - other days, another spirit and stage of evolution." "What," he asks, and proceeds to answer,
As to this mission of his, and the way in which he has fulfilled it,
Whitman has several things to say - more, perhaps, than was necessary.
For in these latter days, without explanation - which he never condescended
to give while he was abused - he and his work have come to be pretty well
understood. One of the best possible evidences of the inherent strength
of Leaves of Grass and its author is that, under circumstances the
most unfavourable, and against all kinds of impediments, they have held
their own, and come to be esteemed. But Whitman, who would explain nothing
in answer to abuse, is prepared to explain much in answer to sympathy;
and, accordingly, in three separate articles in this volume, he discourses
of himself and his book. Leaves of Grass, he says,