New York Times, August 8, 1995
Gay Wilson Allen was Walt Whitman’s biographer.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
March 2016
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You’re welcome. Gay Wilson Allen’s biography of Whitman, “The Solitary Singer,” was the first one to speak of. It came out in the 1950’s and was revised once. Allen was an excellent scholar and critic whose judgments were sound. He unearthed much hitherto unknown information about Whitman, and all subsequent biographers are indebted to him. And by the way, your prof is right: “A Reader’s Guide to Walt Whitman” is excellent as well as Allen’s “Walt Whitman Handbook” and “The New Walt Whitman Handbook.”
Interesting that you posted this today; my American Poetry prof was just lecturing about Whitman this week and referred to Gay Wilson Allen as “the best biographer of American Literature”and assigned us “A Reader’s Guide to Walt Whitman”for homework.
Thanks for posting!