Perspective

One of the more important courses I took as an undergraduate at UCLA was "19th Century American Popular Literature." It was very revealing to realize that the Best Sellers of the previous century not only were unread today (i.e. in 1965) but 90% of their authors were writers I'd never even heard of before. I took this right after I took "19th Century American Literature," reading Melville, Hawthorne, Poe, Emerson, Mark Twain, Whitman, Dickinson and such, none of whose major works were "best sellers." This juxtaposition put the literary world in perspective.

And Whitman, of course, not only self-published Leaves of Grass but wrote glowing reviews of it under various pseudonyms! Now there's a literary entrepreneur for you! Indeed, "Walter Whitman" the journalist was something of a dandy, before he re-invented himself (think Robert Zimmerman becoming Bob Dylan) as the folksy, bearded Walt. This, too, is a story that needs a stage or screen. A great example of "the performing self."