The Journalism, Volume I: 1834-1846, the definitive, authoritative, MLA scholarly edition, is a volume in The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman, the Whitman Writings that every library should own (Choice). Volume I reprints 589 Whitman editorials, articles, essays, other prose matter, and poems from 20 journals, including 5 newspapers that Whitman edited. These writings were hitherto unreprinted or uncollected, or only available in out-of-print limited collections, most with unreliable texts. The Journalism includes a detailed, meticulously documented introduction, reliable texts, substantial annotation (752 notes), thorough textual tables (763 items), and a comprehensive index. Providing essential documents, The Journalism is indispensable for understanding Leaves of Grass and the views and milieu of America's greatest poet. The volume, moreover, is useful in such areas as history, journalism, American studies, and popular culture.
Whitman's journalistic writings cover a wide range of subjects: war, slavery, politics, government, economic matters, labor, immigration, social concerns (crime and punishment, poverty, minority rights, women's rights, health, education), the press, religion, literature, drama, music, art. And Whitman's views on these subjects are as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century.