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By: Anne Holmes
Among the diverse and modern voices Whitman envisioned would follow him are three recent U.S. Poet Laureate Consultants to the Library of Congress: Joy Harjo, Tracy K. Smith, and Juan Felipe Herrera. They served in association with the Library from 2015 to 2022 and were all inspired in their own ways by Whitman.
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Anne Holmes
Walt Whitman’s diaries and notebooks contain many passages about identity and connection—the identity, status, and worth of other people, and Whitman’s own. In his “No Doubt the Efflux” and other notebooks, Whitman engages in the personal politics of observation and attraction.
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Anne Holmes
Launched May 26 in honor of Walt Whitman’s May birthday, a new project of the Library’s By the People Whitman campaign focuses on the diaries and notebooks in the Manuscript Division’s Charles E. Feinberg collection of Walt Whitman Papers.
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Anne Holmes
Walt Whitman devised his “Death of Lincoln” speech in 1879 to commemorate the April 14-15, 1865, demise of Abraham Lincoln. In this post, Manuscript Division curator Barbara Bair explores Whitman's historic speech, which is at the heart of the newest offering in the Library’s By the People crowdsourcing transcription campaign.
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Anne Holmes
May is the month of Walt Whitman’s birth and also of Memorial Day, when the nation is asked to pause and delve mindfully into remembrance of past wars and service and sacrifices rendered. Library of Congress Manuscript Division curator Barbara Bair explores Whitman's experiences and remembrances of war, isolation, suffering, and a turn to art in times of crisis—and how these themes connect to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Anne Holmes
On Friday, May 1, at 3 PM ET, the Library of Congress Learning and Innovation Office and By the People crowdsourcing team will partner with the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) to host a Walt Whitman and crowdsourcing themed webinar.
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Anne Holmes
Yesterday, the Library of Congress celebrated Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday with a public open house in the Thomas Jefferson Building. From 2:30 to 5:00, the room buzzed with energy as Library staff showed off a host of rarely seen Whitman collection items from the Manuscript, Rare Book and Special Collections, Prints and Photographs, and Music …
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Anne Holmes
The following guest post is by Sasha Dowdy, program specialist in the Library’s Young Readers Center. To have great poets, there must be great audiences. So said Walt Whitman, the famous 19th century American poet born on this day in 1819. And most would say Whitman became that great poet with even greater audiences: Whitman …
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Anne Holmes
The following guest post is by Amanda Zimmerman, reference assistant in the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division. The Library of Congress will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Whitman’s birthday in spring 2019 with a series of exhibits, public programs, and a digital crowdsourcing campaign to showcase the Library’s unparalleled collections of Whitman’s writings and …
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Anne Holmes
The following guest post is by Barbara Bair, historian in the Library’s Manuscript Division. This is the third in a series of blog posts exploring the life and work of Walt Whitman. The Library of Congress will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Whitman’s birthday in spring 2019 with a series of exhibits, public programs, and a …
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat