|
Showing 1 - 25 of
25 matches in All Departments
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1921 Edition.
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1921 Edition.
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1921 Edition.
Not many people know that Walt Whitman--arguably the preeminent
American poet of the nineteenth century--began his literary career
as a novelist. "Franklin Evans, or The Inebriate: A Tale of the
Times" was his first and only novel. Published in 1842, during a
period of widespread temperance activity, it became Whitman's most
popular work during his lifetime, selling some twenty thousand
copies.
The novel tells the rags-to-riches story of Franklin Evans, an
innocent young man from the Long Island countryside who seeks his
fortune in New York City. Corrupted by music halls, theaters, and
above all taverns, he gradually becomes a drunkard. Until the very
end of the tale, Evans's efforts to abstain fail, and each time he
resumes drinking, another series of misadventures ensues. Along the
way, Evans encounters a world of mores and conventions rapidly
changing in response to the vicissitudes of slavery, investment
capital, urban mass culture, and fervent reform. Although Evans
finally signs a temperance pledge, his sobriety remains haunted by
the often contradictory and unsettling changes in antebellum
American culture.
The editors' substantial introduction situates "Franklin Evans"
in relation to Whitman's life and career, mid-nineteenth-century
American print culture, and many of the developments and
institutions the novel depicts, including urbanization,
immigration, slavery, the temperance movement, and new
understandings of class, race, gender, and sexuality. This edition
includes a short temperance story Whitman published at about the
same time as he did "Franklin Evans," the surviving fragment of
what appears to be another unfinished temperance novel by Whitman,
and a temperance speech Abraham Lincoln gave the same year that
"Franklin Evans" was published.
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1921 Edition.
This early work edited by Emory Holloway was originally published
in 1938 and we are now republishing it. 'Walt Whitman - Complete
Poetry and Selected Prose and Letters' is a huge collection of
writing by this legendary American literary figure.
Not many people know that Walt Whitman--arguably the preeminent
American poet of the nineteenth century--began his literary career
as a novelist. "Franklin Evans, or The Inebriate: A Tale of the
Times" was his first and only novel. Published in 1842, during a
period of widespread temperance activity, it became Whitman's most
popular work during his lifetime, selling some twenty thousand
copies.
The novel tells the rags-to-riches story of Franklin Evans, an
innocent young man from the Long Island countryside who seeks his
fortune in New York City. Corrupted by music halls, theaters, and
above all taverns, he gradually becomes a drunkard. Until the very
end of the tale, Evans's efforts to abstain fail, and each time he
resumes drinking, another series of misadventures ensues. Along the
way, Evans encounters a world of mores and conventions rapidly
changing in response to the vicissitudes of slavery, investment
capital, urban mass culture, and fervent reform. Although Evans
finally signs a temperance pledge, his sobriety remains haunted by
the often contradictory and unsettling changes in antebellum
American culture.
The editors' substantial introduction situates "Franklin Evans"
in relation to Whitman's life and career, mid-nineteenth-century
American print culture, and many of the developments and
institutions the novel depicts, including urbanization,
immigration, slavery, the temperance movement, and new
understandings of class, race, gender, and sexuality. This edition
includes a short temperance story Whitman published at about the
same time as he did "Franklin Evans," the surviving fragment of
what appears to be another unfinished temperance novel by Whitman,
and a temperance speech Abraham Lincoln gave the same year that
"Franklin Evans" was published.
|
|