3 ms·

Walt Whitman's Letter for a Dying Soldier to His Wife Discovered

77 points by samclemens 11y ago

justifier 11y ago
whitman, i think, is the greatest writer rather than this being because of his work directly, it's more because he understood and lived the idea that change is inevitable and necessary he only wrote one book his entire life publishing edits through the years it is amazing to see how the poems both change and remain the same over time when i read a whitman piece i always read it as i know he himself would have: how can i make this more beautiful and inclusive? http://whitmanarchive.org/ http://whitmanarchive.org/
- eitally 11y ago
  Thanks for calling out the Whitman Archive! I worked to digitize the manuscript & early first editions of Leaves of Grass while an undergraduate at UVA, and both had a great time and learned a ton about Whitman and old books. To make a modern comparison, scholars believe Whitman authored Leaves of Grass in a very similar way to how Kanye West is treating The Life of Pablo. He released a rough draft to a limited audience over a short period of time, but continued editing, revising and adding to it for years afterward, as his perspective and understanding of the world around him evolved. Whitman was an amazing writer. I wouldn't hesitate to call him America's Joyce. Editorial on The Life of Pablo: http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/could-kanye-s-tlop-updates-change-the-way-we-see-albums http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/could-kanye-s-tlop-update...
AI_Overlord 11y ago
For some reason it causes me a bit of difficulty to understand the headline on first pass. Something seems to be off with the gramar. Why not just say "Walt Whitman's letter to wife of dying soldier" Easier to understand in my opinion.
- Polyphonie 11y ago
  Re-read the headline: > Walt Whitman's Letter For A Dying Soldier To His Wife Discovered Just make sure you separate the middle part- Letter For A Dying Soldier To His Wife- from the rest.
  - gpvos 11y ago
    That is actually the part with the problem. One problem for me is that when initially scanning the sentence, "for" implies that the letter is intended to be sent to the soldier; "on behalf of" would be clearer. Another minor unclarity is that "his" can refer to either the soldier or Walt Whitman.
frozenport 11y ago
This is misdirected, we should take on the struggle against capitalism, rather than capitalization.
- dang 11y ago
  We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11302538 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11302538 and marked it off-topic.
andrelaszlo 11y ago
I was confused by the + signs, I read them like "plus" (is this a common use of this sign?) until I read the scanned letter, which was surprisingly easy to read. The signs looked much more like & ("and") than + to me.
- evincarofautumn 11y ago
  Yes, “+” is often used in handwriting (typically with a loop) to mean “and”. In casual speech or when teaching mathematics to young students, “+” can be pronounced “and”, as in “one and one make two”.

77 points by samclemens 11y ago

whitman, i think, is the greatest writer rather than this being because of his work directly, it's more because he understood and lived the idea that change is inevitable and necessary he only wrote one book his entire life publishing edits through the years it is amazing to see how the poems both change and remain the same over time when i read a whitman piece i always read it as i know he himself would have: how can i make this more beautiful and inclusive? http://whitmanarchive.org/ http://whitmanarchive.org/

eitally 11y ago
Thanks for calling out the Whitman Archive! I worked to digitize the manuscript & early first editions of Leaves of Grass while an undergraduate at UVA, and both had a great time and learned a ton about Whitman and old books. To make a modern comparison, scholars believe Whitman authored Leaves of Grass in a very similar way to how Kanye West is treating The Life of Pablo. He released a rough draft to a limited audience over a short period of time, but continued editing, revising and adding to it for years afterward, as his perspective and understanding of the world around him evolved. Whitman was an amazing writer. I wouldn't hesitate to call him America's Joyce. Editorial on The Life of Pablo: http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/could-kanye-s-tlop-updates-change-the-way-we-see-albums http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/could-kanye-s-tlop-update...

AI_Overlord 11y ago

For some reason it causes me a bit of difficulty to understand the headline on first pass. Something seems to be off with the gramar. Why not just say "Walt Whitman's letter to wife of dying soldier" Easier to understand in my opinion.

Polyphonie 11y ago
Re-read the headline: > Walt Whitman's Letter For A Dying Soldier To His Wife Discovered Just make sure you separate the middle part- Letter For A Dying Soldier To His Wife- from the rest.
- gpvos 11y ago
  That is actually the part with the problem. One problem for me is that when initially scanning the sentence, "for" implies that the letter is intended to be sent to the soldier; "on behalf of" would be clearer. Another minor unclarity is that "his" can refer to either the soldier or Walt Whitman.

frozenport 11y ago

This is misdirected, we should take on the struggle against capitalism, rather than capitalization.

dang 11y ago
We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11302538 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11302538 and marked it off-topic.

andrelaszlo 11y ago

I was confused by the + signs, I read them like "plus" (is this a common use of this sign?) until I read the scanned letter, which was surprisingly easy to read. The signs looked much more like & ("and") than + to me.

evincarofautumn 11y ago
Yes, “+” is often used in handwriting (typically with a loop) to mean “and”. In casual speech or when teaching mathematics to young students, “+” can be pronounced “and”, as in “one and one make two”.