Feinberg/Whitman Notes and Notebooks Notes--Literary Undated "The Voice of Walt Whitman" (DCN 17) Box 40 Folder 51 and other notes Includes verso literary note 116. THE VOICE OF WALT WHITMAN. 1860-1890. Six Auto- graph Manuscripts containing three signatures in text, 8 pp., 8vo and 12mo, about 290 words. With portrait and title. 4to, cloth, blue morocco back. The collection contains "Voice of Walt Whitman to the mechanics and farmers of These States, and to each American Young Man, North, South, East and West", and on the verso an outline for a book for "American Boys" ; a note on the " spinal idea of Walt Whitman's poetry" ; an early draft of "When the Full-grown Poet Came" in "Good-Bye My Fancy" ; a note on his reasons for "this complete rupture with the customary rules and definitions" in "Leaves of Grass", apparently written for a preface ; a note on France ; poem "And there is the meteor-shower wondrous and dazzling", an early draft of a part of "Year of Meteors" in "Drum-Taps" ; on the verso a note on whales. #705 Friends of the Detroit Public Library, Inc. 1858 Notes and Fragments; mostly on poetry. A.MS.S. (7p. front. port. Various sizes) Bound in half leather, each page mounted. Seven manuscript notes reading in part: "Voice of Walt Whitman to the mechanics and farmers of these States, and to each American young man, North, South, East and West." On verso: "A Book for American Boys." Another fragment: "Walt Whitman's poetry. Much has been written about it, we doubt if a single artist has yet penetrated or stated it." The third note ends: "Now between the two comes the poet the Answerer." The fourth note: ". . . that a poetry which pretends to satisfy the American republic must make its appearance in the spiritual as well as the physical being of the reader like healthy nourishment or pure air." The fifth note discusses the French Revolution : "those dread deeds still present for the race of France." The sixth note on : "the meteor-shower, wondrous and dazzling the 12th-13th Eleventh Month, year 58 of the States." Some of these notes were later published in Notes and Fragments, ed. by R.M. Bucke. {17} paper clipping laid in containing an account of the execution of two men by the California Vigilance Committee, 4to, boards. The recto of each sheet of this manuscript contains a list of about 225 words relating to the human body which Whitman incorporated in "I sing the Body Electric". On the verso is a note in the California Vigilance Committee written after reading the above clipping. " The American people, ever sturdy, ever instinctively just, by right of Teutonic descent have only to perceive any great wrong, and the work of redemption is begun from that hour. I heartily approve of the action of the California Vigilance Committee; it is worthy the promptness and just anger of the Anglo Saxon Race.." Walt Whitman Walt Whitman A Series of Six Pieces Original Holograph Manuscripts The Voice of Walt Whitman and A Book for American Boys "Not a single Critic has ever penetrated The Poet-the Answerer On the Complete Rupture of Customary Rules Revolutionary Episodes of France On the Meteoric Shower 12-13 November 1858 WALT WHITMAN A Series of Six Pieces Original Holograph Manuscripts The Voice of Walt Whitman and A book for American Boys "Not a single Critic has ever penetrated" The Poet- The Answerer On the Complete Rupture of Customary Rules Revolutionary Episodes of France On the Meteoric Shower 12-13 November 1858 Note fragments p. 176. The the Presidency Voice of Walt Whitman to the mechanics and farmers of these States, and to each American young men, North, South, East and West. For instance Who are the people, a nation? Working mechanics, farmers, sailors, ice [?] constitute more than five millions of the inhab- itants of These States. — Merchants, lawyers, doctors, teachers, priests, and the like, count up as high as five hundred thousand — The owners of slaves number three Notes Fragments p. 176 American Boys A Book Containing the Main things - for the formation, ready, reference & study from An American Young Man for Schools - for Study for individual use- one of the upper classes of every school in the United States. Note Fragments p. 167 All [this] [For] [be it remembered] And anywhere in his article which is written to present truthfully and plainly by one side of the story indispensable to the examination, (now just seriously beginning) of Walt Whitman's writings. May there perhaps not improbably begiven in brief the spinul [?] idea of Walt Whitman beginning) See'st Thou [*she three of the Three*] Know Thou There is on the one part Between this beautiful but dumb Earth, with all [all] its manifold eloquent but inarticulate shows & objects And on the other part the being Man curious questioning & at fault, [var] Now between the two comes. the poet the Answerer, But this complete rupture with the customary rules and definitions offends most readers at first sight. One tries too much to approach Wh. by the flush of critical reason. But whoever comprehends him rightly will find that his effect upon the reader is not as much intellectual as moral. To speak in Wh. language I would call the influences of these poems in a high, if not in the highest, degree a physiological one. He himself demands, among other things, that a poesy, which [?] [?] pretends to satisfy the wants of the American republic, must make its appearance in the spiritual as well as in the physical being of the reader, like healthy nourishment or pure air. [Farther yet] Still more [from me] [us] [me] [from] [born American,] is due those episodes of France: [sole] [cruel] ? platonic among lands [different from all,] more dreadful than any [more colossal,] yet indispensable, they [have the sense of another] [sole always] another [new] layer, latest among the few moral strata, [necessary] enfolding [their] the [beautiful,] globe, [this memorable globe,] is their's.— They are not inviting - They are not good - They [stand, frowning,] [extend ?] lie [gashed] gashed, [covered] streaming with blood but, France [has no] acquiring them we know the future will not have credentials, [and I doubt if ever their exotic] [?], more to be envied, than [those] [dread deeds, their ensemble] sole giving men different, colossal, than dread deeds will present for the race of France! Still more [Farther yet] [from ? born Americans] is due those episodes of France & ? among lands [different from all] more dreadful than any [more colossal] yet indispensable thy ? another [have the sense of another] [new] layer, latest among the few moral strata, necessary enfolding [this] the be ? globe ? is theirs ? They are not ? They are not good they ? ? streaming with blood but credientials more to be envied than present for the ? of France And there is the meteor shower wondrous and dazzling the 12th - 13th Eleventh Month, year 58 of the States [?] between midnight and morning. See you! The rainbow spectacle of the meteors myriad, in all [?], some with long shiny trains. [*See you*] Some rolly' over each other' like water poured out and falls - leaping silent, white apparitions of the sky. Poem of the Trainer Whale--( the sperm whale dies (from fancy harpoon's ? ?ikes a cirle circle perha? ?arter of a mile ?eter and so goes ? and round [???rr] over br??d narrows swift, and then ?es and d?ss tul?? with "Bill" the whaler [*notes of Fragments p.'76*] Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.