| Show i hi bronze r h hR R g d da a f fl ft l b bA t A IJ k t 7 if 1 r a i- i iio o i D idson is the 17 0 Own By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN SHERMANS S WALT WHITMAN the 1 good gray poet com corn cornIng coming coming ing In Into to his own at last New York city anyway I j seems to be scrambling hard to overtake his fame The Authors club clubB has decided upon a 00 60 O- O ten foot bronze statue stat stat- statue statue ue and Jo DavIdson has been com com- commissioned commissioned commissioned to make mako It ft Anyone who I feels so Inclined can contribute to the cost Shut not your doors to me proud libraries wrote 1 I wrote Whitman In one ot of othIs hIs poems Libraries have been known to do that And now comes forward the New York Public Public library with an exhibition of ot In aid of the f statue project project-It project It Is the first time any library has lias honored the poet witha with o a special exhibition The Whitman In consists of books editions of ot all sorts translations Into foreign languages newspapers and magazines to which lie he contributed manuscripts paintings busts caricatures books about him and a great variety of ot other material 0 of the life and work ot of New Yorks York's greatest poet The ex- ex exhibition ex exhibition has been assembled and ar- ar arranged arranged ar arranged ranged by Alfred Goldsmith the Whitman Whit Whit- Whitman Whitman man biographer The Tho editions on vIew are oro thus summarized Here Is shown Franklin Evans E Whitman's first volume n a puerile tem tem- temperance temperance temperance perance melodrama Seven Se copies of the famous First Edition of ot Leaves Leans of Grass The Second Edition ElUtion with the known well known I greet you at the be- be beginning beginning be beginning ginning of a great career from Emer- Emer Emerson eon Emer-eon mer- mer merson son spread upon the Is fully displayed as are aro the tho various arlous quaint tooled tooled blind bindings of ot the Third Edition Accompanying Passage to IndIa Is the original manuscript This poem was as he ho said that which ex- ex expressed expressed ex expressed pressed his deepest self The Osgood Edition of ot 2 1881 which caused such n a furor because of threatened legal prosecution Is shown as well as the Rees flees Welsh esh Edition which paid the theauthor theauthor author the largest ro royalty checks of ot his I career A rarely seen een volume Is Memoranda During the War ot of otI I which less than one hundred copies were printed The edition which Whit hit Whitman Whitman man himself thought his most hand hand- liand so soe soone e one was the autographed Pocket Pocket book book Edition of ot 1889 1850 But ten years ears after anel his death In 1592 his collected works were published de do h by Put Put- Putnam Putnam Put Put-nam nam In ten highly Illustrated The Deathbed Edition was hastily bound for Whitman just before hIs death In order that he be might make mako a farewell fare pre present ent to his Ills friends The display of ot editions closes with the latest Issue Issued a year ear ago the Inclusive Edition The rhe committee on sculpture in- in includes in includes Prof George S Hellman chair chair- chairman chairman man mun and Mrs Mra Harry la Payne Whitney Aymar Embury Otto IL II Kuhn Kahn Charles De Ka Kay Gu Guy Egleston and Prof Emory Holloway chairman of ot the theWalt theWalt theWalt Walt Whitman Memorial committee Professor has this tills to say about the selection of ot Mr Davidsons Davidson's model for the memorial No io formal competition was held but designs were submitted by six sculptors who requested that their works be considered At the recent meeting of ot the tho sculpture committee h I Z M Mif if ift t Mr Davidsons Davidson's design was declared the most fitting and arrangements were begun with him looking to the completion of ot the work vork Mr Davidson ldson took as his theme Whitman's Song of the Open Road Road- the long brown path before me lead lead- leading leading ing wherever I choose se His Ills idea Is Isto isto isto to have e the statue raised slightly above e its surroundings on a n sort ot of hillock suggesting an open road On the ground In front of the statue he het t a big stone slab upon which would be set in bronze the lye first stanza ot of The Song of the lye Open Road Hoad When completed the statue will be In bronze and of ot heroic size probably ten feet teet or more In height Here lIere are lines from The Song ot of the Open Road noad which show that Mr Ir Davidsons Davidson's Idea for a statue Is a happy one Afoot and light hearted I take to the open road Healthy free freo the world before me meThe The long brown path before me mo lead lead- leadIng leading lead leading ing wherever I choose Henceforth I ask not good fortune fortuno I myself am good fortune Henceforth I whimper no more post post- postpone post postpone pone no more need nothing Done with Ind or complaints libraries querulous criticisms Strong and nd content I travel the open road From this hour I ordain myself loosed ot of limits and Imaginary lines Going where I list my own master total and absolute Listening to others considering well what they say eay Pausing searching receiving contemplating contemplating contemplating plating Gently but with undeniable will di- di divesting divesting di divesting vesting myself of ot tho the holds that would hold me I inhale great great reat draughts of space The east and the west are mine and the north and tho the south are mine I give you my handl I elvo you my lovo love more precious than money moncy 7 1 give you myself before preaching or law Will you give me yourself Will you come como travel with me Shall we stick by each other as longas long longas as wo we live JIve Foreigners insist that it was Walt Whitman who put us on the literary map and map and and keeps leeps us there However that may be John Jolin Burroughs probably probably ably expressed the lye American view view- viewpoint viewpoint point of ot a generation ago pretty closely when he ho wrote this there hankering Who goes gross mystical nude hankering nude hankering like the great elk In the forest at springtime grow Croat as nature Is le gross mystical AS Boehme or I land and so far as IlS the tho and andI disguises of ot the conventional man and the tho usual adornments of ot polite polito verse I are concerned as nudo nude as Adam In Paradise Indeed It was wal wa the nudity of ot Walt Whitman's verse both In re- re respect respect re respect to Its subject matter and hi hie mode of ot treatment of ot It that so aston aston- astonIshed astonished astonished when It did not repel his Ills readers read read- readers readers ers lie He boldly stripped away every every- everythIng everything everything thing conventional and artificial from man clothes clothes customs In etc and and treated him as he be Is primarily primarily marily in and of himself and In his hie relation to the universe and with equal boldness he stripped away what were to him the artificial adjuncts ot of poetry rhyme rhyme measure and all the tho stock language and forms of ot the schools and and planted himself upon a spontaneous rhythm of ot language and the Inherently In the common and universal Walt Whitman 1892 1819 was born bomon on Long Island and was educated In Inthe Inthe the public schools of New York and Brooklyn On his fathers father's side he was English and on his mothers mother's side Hol Hol- Holland Holland land Dutch Ills His maternal grandmother er was a Ho lie learned print print- printIng printing printing ing and carpentering and also taught school lIe He began his writing In 1841 with conventional con stories Next Neot he was waR editor of the Brooklyn Eagle After a n leisurely tour of ot Middle West i and Southern states he Joined the staff stal I ot of the lye New Orleans Crescent A little I later he established In Brooklyn the Freeman a short organ of ot the I Free Sollers From 1851 1551 to 1851 he be was busied with building and selling houses houes And nd In 1855 appeared Leaves ot of Grass for which he set most ot of the type typo himself l Leading citizens preachers lecturers and the general public combined In denouncing him asa as asa asa a revolutionary abandoned voluptuary voluptuary ary unredeemed pagan thInker free free literary charlatan and so on As late at nt 1881 1831 the Massachusetts au- au authorities au authorities objected to Its sale on the I ground that it was immoral From From 1862 to 1865 Whitman was a volunteer war nurse In the army hos hos- hospitals hos- hos hospitals hospitals of ot Washington It is said that he visited and administered to sick and wounded Union and Confederate Confederate erate crate Out of ot these experiences came Drum Taps laps 1805 1865 and other yolo vol- volumes vol volumes umes Ills His labors as a nurse brought broughton on a serious Illness from which he never ne recovered In 1865 he was given gl givena n a clerkship in the Interior department but was discharged by the secretary who objected to the Adamic pas pas pas- passages passages sa sages es In Lea Leaves yes of ot Grass Ho IIo was given ghen a n new place under the attorney general and held it until a n stroke ot of paralysis in 1873 1573 compelled Ills his re- re retirement retirement re retirement He lie went to Camden N J where he lived till his death March larch 26 J 1892 2 Walt Whitman anticipating abush abusive criticism said suld he was wag willing wilting to walt wait waitto waitto to be understood by the growth gro of ot the taste of or himself Is the long walt wait over o I |
