Blackwell Reference Online

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Among the materials that Richard Maurice Bucke assembled in his early biographical volume Walt Whitman (1883) were sketches written by people who knew the poet in earlier days. Included in these was a reminiscence by Helen Price, the daughter of women's rights activist Abby Price. Whitman often visited the Price home in Brooklyn in the 1850s for socializing and discussion. During one visit Whitman mentioned that he had written a new poem “about a mocking bird … founded on a real incident.” Mrs Price asked him to bring it along the next time he visited. A few days later he came back, but rather than read the poem himself, he asked that someone else read it instead. A man who lived with the Prices, a student of Swedenborgianism, read it first, “with great appreciation and feeling.” Whitman then asked Mrs Price to read. After her reading, the others insisted that Whitman take his turn. Helen Price, writing 25 years later, said: “That evening comes before me now as one of the most enjoyable of my life. At each reading fresh beauties revealed themselves to me. I could not say whose reading I preferred; [Whitman] liked my mother's, and Mr. A liked his.” She also says that after the readings Whitman asked for suggestions from the others, including herself, 17 years old at the time: “I can remember how taken aback and nonplussed I was when he turned and asked me also” (Myerson 1991: 27–8). ... log in or subscribe to read full text