The Enduring Mystery of Walt Whitman’s Meditation on Love and Sexuality

In the following selection from the afterword to a new edition of Live Oak, with Moss, a set of Walt Whitman poems rediscovered in the 1950s and now presented with illustrations by Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Brian Selznick — two of which are seen here, with two of the poems from the cycle — scholar Karen Karbiener explains the enduring puzzle of this forgotten work by one of America's most famous poets:

As he was turning 40, Walt Whitman worked on 12 poems in a small handmade notebook he entitled “Live Oak, with Moss.” He later took the book apart,...

In the following selection from the afterword to a new edition of Live Oak, with Moss, a set of Walt Whitman poems rediscovered in the 1950s and now presented with illustrations by Caldecott Award-winning illustrator Brian Selznick — two of which are seen here, with two of the poems from the cycle — scholar Karen Karbiener explains the enduring puzzle of this forgotten work by one of America's most famous poets: As he was turning 40, Walt Whitman worked on 12 poems in a small handmade notebook he entitled “Live Oak, with Moss.” He later took the book apart,...