Walt Whitman's lectures on Abraham Lincoln
The American poet Walt Whitman gave a lecture on Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, several times between 1879 and 1890.
The lecture centered on the assassination of Lincoln, but also covered years leading up to and during the American Civil War and often included readings of poems such as "O Captain!
Whitman, who had long aspired to be a lecturer, first spoke on the death of Lincoln in New York City's Steck Hall on April 14 the following year.
[3][4] The brief volume was controversial,[5] with critics particularly objecting to Whitman's blunt depictions of sexuality and what the University of Virginia Libraries has described as its "obvious homoerotic overtones".
[6] At the start of the American Civil War, Whitman moved from New York to Washington, D.C., where he held a series of government jobs—first with the Army Paymaster's Office and later with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
[17] In the mid-19th century, public lectures in the United States became regarded as a platform for well-known Americans to reach large numbers of people.
[20] In a letter written on February 3, 1878, Whitman's friend John Burroughs suggested that he deliver a lecture on Lincoln's assassination.
Burroughs wrote that the editor Richard Watson Gilder also supported the idea, and suggested delivery around the anniversary of the assassination, in April.
The next month, Whitman began experiencing severe pain in his shoulder and was partially paralyzed; as a result, the lecture was postponed to May.
[24] In March 1879,[25] a group of Whitman's friends, including Gilder, Burroughs, and the jeweler John H. Johnston, began planning a lecture again.
[26] Whitman's April 15, 1887, lecture at Madison Square Theatre is considered the most successful of the deliveries, largely because it was attended by many prominent societal figures.
[35] Whitman said that he gave the lecture a total of thirteen times,[36] but later scholars give varying numbers—estimates range as high as twenty.
[a][14] Eleven individual deliveries have been identified: The scholar Merrill D. Peterson describes Whitman as not an orator "either in manner or appearance".
[17] The lecture combined clippings of previously written material,[72] such as the article Whitman had published on Lincoln's death in the New York Sun,[21] Memoranda During the War, The Bride of Gettysburg by John Dunbar Hilton,[73] and some new content.
[73][74] According to the scholar Leslie Elizabeth Eckel, Whitman generally began by "downplaying his ability to handle the emotionally challenging task that lay before him".
[17] Daniel Mark Epstein, in a biography of Whitman, wrote that his deliveries were always successful and usually attracted vast amounts of positive attention in local newspapers.
[88] He described the crowd as listening "in religious silence, for its sudden grace notes, vibrant tones, hymnlike progress, and Olympian familiarity seemed at times the whispering of the stars".
[18] Whitman's lecture was intended to give the impression of presenting a factual account, with a tone that scholar Martin T. Buinicki writes is "pointedly historical".
