Walt Whitman

New York: Basic Books, 1985. Hard cover. Good. Walt Whitman (SOFTCOVER-PUBLISHED BY BASIC BOOKS-1994 COPYRIGHT-372 PAGES) by Paul Zweig BOOK REVIEW; Whitman as part of a two-year research project, and in many important ways, it is the best. As the title suggests, it covers only the portion of... Audience: General/trade. -Walt Whitman (SOFTCOVER-PUBLISHED BY BASIC BOOKS-1994 COPYRIGHT-372 PAGES) by Paul Zweig BOOK REVIEW; Whitman as part of a two-year research project, and in many important ways, it is the best. As the title suggests, it covers Walt Whitman (SOFTCOVER-PUBLISHED BY BASIC BOOKS-1994 COPYRIGHT-372 PAGES) by Paul Zweig BOOK REVIEW; Whitman as part of a two-year research project, and in many important ways, it is the best. As the title suggests, it covers only the portion of Whitman's life leading up to the publication of first three editions of "Leaves of Grass" when the poet was discovering--and defining--who he was; it is a brilliant bohemian scholar's guided tour through Whitman's early life and work. Zweig gives the closest readings of the poems and journals I have seen so far, and draws the clearest portrait of what the young, elusive Walt must have been like. You finish the book feeling as though you somehow know Whitman better than his own friends and family did.