Error title
Some error text about your books and stuff.
Close

The Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil War

by Morris, Roy, Jr. A

  • ISBN: 9780195124828
  • ISBN10: 0195124820

The Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil War

by Morris, Roy, Jr. A

  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • Publish date: 05/01/2000
  • ISBN: 9780195124828
  • ISBN10: 0195124820
used Add to Cart $5.62
You save: 78%
Marketplace Item
Product notice Returnable at the third party seller's discretion and may come without consumable supplements like access codes, CD's, or workbooks.
new Add to Cart $28.12
Marketplace Item
Product notice Returnable at the third party seller's discretion and may come without consumable supplements like access codes, CD's, or workbooks.
Description: On May 26, 1863, Walt Whitman wrote to his mother: "O the sad, sad things I see -- the noble young men with legs and arms taken off -- the deaths -- the sick weakness, sicker than death, that some endure, after amputations...just flickering alive, and O so deathly weak and sick". For nearly three years, Whitman immersed himself in the devastation of the Civil War, tending to thousands of wounded soldiers and recording his experience with an immediacy and compassion unequaled in wartime literature anywhere in the world.

In The Better Angel, acclaimed biographer Roy Morris, Jr. gives us the fullest accounting of Whitman's profoundly transformative Civil War Years and an historically invaluable examination of the Union's treatment of its sick and wounded. Whitman was mired in depression as the war began, subsisting on journalistic hackwork, wasting his nights in New York's seedy bohemian underground, his "great career" as a poet apparently stalled. But when news came that his brother George had been wounded at Fredericksburg, Whitman rushed south to find him. Though his brother's injury was slight, Whitman was deeply affected by his first view of the war's casualties. He began visiting the camp's wounded and, almost by accident, found his calling for the duration of the war. Three years later, he emerged as the war's "most unlikely hero", a living symbol of American democratic ideals of sharing and brotherhood.

Instead of returning to Brooklyn as planned, Whitman continued to visit the wounded soldiers in the hospitals in and around the capital. He brought them ice cream, tobacco, brandy, books, magazines, pens and paper, wrote letters for those who were not able and offered to all theenormous healing influence of his sympathy and affection. Indeed, several soldiers claimed that Whitman had saved their lives. One noted that Whitman "seemed to have what everybody wanted" and added "When this old heathen came and gave me a pipe and tobacco, it was about the most joyful moment of my life". Another wrote that "There is many a soldier that never thinks of you but with emotions of the greatest gratitude". But if Whitman gave much to the soldiers, they in turn gave much to him. In witnessing their stoic suffering, in listening to their understated speech, and in being always in the presence of death, Whitman evolved the new and more direct poetic style that was to culminate in his masterpiece, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd".

Brilliantly researched and beautifully written, The Better Angel explores a side of Whitman not fully examined before, one that greatly enriches our understanding of his later poetry. More than that, it gives us a vivid and unforgettable portrait of the "other army" -- the legions of sick and wounded soldiers who are usually left in the shadowy background of Civil War history -- seen here through the unflinching eyes of America's greatest poet.

Expand description
Product notice Returnable at the third party seller's discretion and may come without consumable supplements like access codes, CD's, or workbooks.
Seller Condition Comments Price  
Seller: HPB-Diamond
Location: Dallas, TX
Condition: Very Good
Shipping Icon
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include
[...]
Price:
$5.62
Comments:
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include
[...]
Seller: HPB Inc.
Location: Dallas, TX
Condition: Very Good
Shipping Icon
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include
[...]
Price:
$5.62
Comments:
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include
[...]
Seller: HPB-Ruby
Location: Dallas, TX
Condition: Very Good
Shipping Icon
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include
[...]
Price:
$7.30
Comments:
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include
[...]
Seller: Novel Ideas Books
Location: Decatur, IL
Condition: Like New
0195124820. 8vo 8"-9" tall; 288 pages.
Price:
$7.87
Comments:
0195124820. 8vo 8"-9" tall; 288 pages.
Seller: HPB-Emerald
Location: Dallas, TX
Condition: Very Good
Shipping Icon
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include
[...]
Price:
$8.98
Comments:
Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include
[...]
Seller: Alphaville Books
Location: Hyattsville, MD
Condition: Very Good
Very clean.
Price:
$9.00
Comments:
Very clean.
Seller: Orca Books Cooperative
Location: Olympia, WA
Condition: Very Good
Shipping Icon
The first full account of Whitman's Civil War years sheds new light on the
[...]
Price:
$9.56
Comments:
The first full account of Whitman's Civil War years sheds new light on the
[...]
Seller: Great Northern Books
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Condition: Very Good
Shipping Icon
First printing. "Morris gives us the fullest account yet published of
[...]
Price:
$10.12
Comments:
First printing. "Morris gives us the fullest account yet published of
[...]
Seller: Bob's Book Journey
Location: Austin, TX
Condition: Like New
Shipping Icon
Book Mint condition.
Price:
$10.18
Comments:
Book Mint condition.
Seller: Kisselburg Military Books
Location: Potomac, MD
Condition: Very Good
Nice copy.
Price:
$10.68
Comments:
Nice copy.
Seller: Ed's Editions, LLC
Location: Columbia, SC
Condition: Good
Shipping Icon
Hardcover first edition with dust jacket. Internally clean, unmarked pages
[...]
Price:
$12.32
Comments:
Hardcover first edition with dust jacket. Internally clean, unmarked pages
[...]
Seller: Websters Bookstore Cafe
Location: State College, PA
Condition: Very Good
Shipping Icon
First Edition. First edition with full number line. Light shelf wear. Else clean and tight.
Price:
$12.37
Comments:
First Edition. First edition with full number line. Light shelf wear. Else clean and tight.
Seller: Sequitur Books
Location: Boonsboro, MD
Condition: Like New
Shipping Icon
Size: 6x1x8; Hardcover and dust jacket. Good binding and cover. Light wear. Clean, unmarked pages.
Price:
$12.93
Comments:
Size: 6x1x8; Hardcover and dust jacket. Good binding and cover. Light wear. Clean, unmarked pages.
Seller: Browse Awhile Books
Location: Tipp City, OH
Condition: Like New
Shipping Icon
Book. Large Octavo.
Price:
$13.50
Comments:
Book. Large Octavo.
Seller: Pat Cramer,Bookseller
Location: Lewisville, TX
Condition: Like New
Shipping Icon
Book A square solid tight cleanun-read un-opened copy.
Price:
$15.18
Comments:
Book A square solid tight cleanun-read un-opened copy.
Seller: Outrider Book Gallery
Location: Lacey, WA
Condition: Very Good
Shipping Icon
Glued binding. Paper over boards. 270 pg. Audience: General/trade. Book is straight with strong binding and clean text. First Edition 2000. First Print.
Price:
$16.87
Comments:
Glued binding. Paper over boards. 270 pg. Audience: General/trade. Book is straight with strong binding and clean text. First Edition 2000. First Print.
Seller: A Second Wind Books
Location: Bloomfield, IN
Condition: Very Good
Shipping Icon
Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 288 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade.
Price:
$17.98
Comments:
Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 288 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade.
Seller: Schindler-Graf Booksellers
Location: Westlake, OH
Condition: Like New
Shipping Icon
Hardcover in dust jacket. First Edition, first printing. 270 pages, illustrated. No marks or writing to book.
Price:
$18.00
Comments:
Hardcover in dust jacket. First Edition, first printing. 270 pages, illustrated. No marks or writing to book.
Seller: ErgodeBooks
Location: Houston, TX
Condition: New
Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 288 p. Contains: Illustrations.
Price:
$28.12
Comments:
Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 288 p. Contains: Illustrations.
Seller: Austin Book Shop LLC
Location: Richmond Hill, NY
Condition: Very Good
Shipping Icon
270pp Illus "Walt Whitman in the Civil War."
Price:
$30.93
Comments:
270pp Illus "Walt Whitman in the Civil War."
Seller: Bonita
Location: Newport Coast, CA
Condition: Good
Shipping Icon
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
Price:
$35.25
Comments:
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
Seller: Bonita
Location: Newport Coast, CA
Condition: New
Shipping Icon
Price:
$76.01
Comments:
please wait
Please Wait

Notify Me When Available

Enter your email address below,
and we'll contact you when your school adds course materials for
.
Enter your email address below, and we'll contact you when is back in stock (ISBN: ).