Walt Whitman

Oscar Wilde, on his tour of America in 1882, made not one but two pilgrimages to Camden, N.J., to see Walt Whitman—whose poetry he claimed to have known “from the cradle.” Afterward, the Good Grey Poet told a reporter that Wilde was “genuine, honest, and manly.” He added, for emphasis, “He is so frank, and outspoken, and manly.” Wilde, in return, compared Whitman to Goethe and Schiller: “There is something so Greek and sane about his poetry; it is so universal, so comprehensive.”

This comical instance of brazen late-19th-century logrolling comes from Michael Robertson’s Worshipping Walt (Princeton, $27.95), which introduces us to a handful of the “hot little prophets” who made a cult of Whitman, and also reminds us of the religious purpose of his poetry—with Leaves of Grass as gospel.  read more »

Eliot Spitzer was the last to speak here tonight, and it was his speech that made the greatest reach towards grandeur.

"Today was not a victory of one candidate or one Party but of all those irrepressible optimists who have dreamed of a resurgent New York," said Spitzer, who vowed to work to make New York "once again the greatest state in the nation."

He stepped back from the podium to kiss his wife. He marveled at his parents' 61-year marriage. ("As they say on my favorite TV show, 'Booyah.'") And he quoted Alexander Hamilton and Walt Whitman.

He built up to a crescendo, noting that his oft-stated conviction that everything changes on Day one was "now the promise of a governor" and added, "I will never break faith with those who have invested their hopes and dream on this great state."

With that, the entire Democratic ticket (minus Alan Hevesi) climbed on stage, raised their arms and clapped to Start Me Up. And the rank-and-filers headed for the exits.

--Jason Horowitz

Specimen Days, by Michael Cunningham. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 320 pages, $25.  read more »

"Are you Italian?""Yes. How do you know?"  read more »

A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists, 1854-1967 , by Rachel Cohen.  read more »

Poems of New York , edited by Elizabeth Schmidt. Everyman's Library/Alfred A.  read more »

The great Thomas Eakins exhibition, which was reviewed here when it opened last fall at the Philadel  read more »