Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Whitman at War

"With Good Reason" - Whitman at War script

[clip: Walt Whitman reciting America]
This very early wire recording is thought to be of Walt Whitman himself, reading the poem “America”. You can just make out the words: “strong, ample, fair enduring”.

[poem ]

Ezra Pound called Walt Whitman “America’s poet”. Whitman believed his poetry could heal the nation. And during the Civil War, Whitman actually devoted himself to healing thousands of individual soldiers. He held them, dressed their wounds, wrote their letters home and even spoon-fed them ice cream. I’m Sarah McConnell and today on With Good Reason, Walt Whitman at war. Later on in the show, Edgar Allan Poe found life to be cruel and disappointing, but always maintained a sense of humor.

Clip: His horror stories…

But first, Walt Whitman was best known for the 1855 groundbreaking book of poems, Leaves of Grass. He believed that a distinctly American form of poetry could unite and heal the divided country. Mara Scanlon and Brady Earnhardt are professors of English at Mary Washington University in Fredericksburg, where Whitman first saw the violence of the Civil War. He spent the rest of the war nursing thousands of soldiers back to health.

[Interview Brady Earnhardt and Mara Scanlon]

[Music: Brady’s song]

Mara Scanlon and Brady Earnhardt are professors of English at the University of Mary Washington. With their colleague James Groom, they are working on “Looking for Whitman”—a digital humanities project. For a link, visit our website at withgoodreasonradio.org. Coming up next: Edgar Allan Poe at 200.

Edgar Allan Poe was born two hundred years ago, and only lived to the age of forty. But in that short life, he wrote stories and poems with far reaching influence. Jerome McGann is a professor of English at the University of Virginia. He says although Poe’s stories seem gloomy and depressing, he was actually a great idealist—constantly searching for the beautiful and sublime.

Poe was popular in Europe before he was really recognized in the United States. Who championed Poe in Europe?

[Interview: Jerome McGann]

[Music: Lou Reed]

Jerome McGann is a professor of English at the University of Virginia. U.Va.'s Small Special Collections is currently exhibiting “From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe” a collection of letters and artifacts from Poe’s life. For more information, visit withgoodreasonradio.org.

[music]
You’re listening to With Good Reason. Elliot Majerczyk and Jesse Dukes are our associate producers. Andrew Wyndham is our executive producer. Nancy King creates our feature capsules. Jeannie Palin handles listener services and Lydia Wilson is our publicity coordinator. With Good Reason is produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities for the Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium. For a free copy of this show on CD, call 877-451-5098. Or subscribe to our podcast of the show at withgoodreasonradio.org. I'm Sarah McConnell, Thanks for listening.