November Boughs

Compiled when the great poet was 70 years old, <i>November Boughs</i> offers verse and prose reminiscences of a singular American life. Walt Whitman's reflections begin with the essay &quot;A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads,&quot; in which he discusses the genesis of his most famous and controversial book, <i>Leaves of Grass</i>. A selection of poetry titled &quot;Sands at Seventy&quot; is followed by a series of essays and recollections that include &quot;Slang in America,&quot; &quot;What Lurks Behind Shakespeare's Historical Plays,&quot; &quot;The Old Bowery,&quot; and notes on the life of the Quaker abolitionist Elias Hicks, whose body - it was rumored - he and a youthful group of friends once attempted to exhume.<br>This affordable, high-quality edition of a rare book of poetry and prose provides a greater context for the interpretation of Whitman's other works. Essential reading for Whitman scholars, this volume is also of interest to historians of the Civil War, abolitionism, and nineteenth-century America.