Although Walt was a nurse to injured soldiers and witnessed the horrors of war in a way few other writers ever have, because he never saw a battle in progress, he needed George’s actual experiences of war to accurately write about it. Whitman gained a great deal from reading about his brother’s military campaigns in fact, some of the phrases and imagery he used in his poetry to describe battles came directly from George’s letters. While it’s impossible to fully know whether any of his relationships with men were ever sexual, Whitman formed deep, intimate friendships with many of the men he encountered whether they were physically consummated or if Walt even considered that option is almost irrelevant. And of course, his poetry is full of sensuous descriptions of male beauty, along with whispers of illicit deeds and suppressed longings. Throughout his life, he kept various lists of men’s names, sometimes followed by a brief description. Indeed, Walt seems to have been most attracted to young, working-class men, similar to his own background. Whitman undoubtedly inherited this ability from his mother, which allowed him to interact with and befriend men from all walks of life, as well as to write about them with compassion and understanding. Her own, often daily correspondence with her children, discussing George’s battles and Walt’s work as a printer and newspaper editor, as well as her more mundane domestic matters demonstrates that, contrary to the opinion of many Whitman scholars, she understood and appreciated a wide range of experiences.

After her husband’s death in 1855, her many sons, especially Walt, supported her, and kept in close contact with her through their many letters home. Whitman’s mother, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman, played a key role in maintaining the family bonds. Through extensive use of Whitman family letters and Whitman’s own notebook entries, journalist Robert Roper fleshes out the familial ties of “the great gray poet” previously unknown to most readers, showing how both his family and his experiences during the Civil War helped shape his development as a poet. This fascinating study examines the relationship between Walt Whitman and his family, refuting the popular notion of the poet as wandering through the world alone.

‘Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War’ By Robert Roper

Masculine Beauty by Walt Whitman