Whitman's Grandchildren: Becoming and Unbecoming Walt Whitman
The January 2013 issue of PMLA has a pretty cool article (" Whitman's Children ") by Bowdoin College English Professor Peter Coviello (pictured here) that takes as its starting point a couple of babies born after the U.S. Civil War that were named Walt—a nominal tribute that two veterans paid to Walt Whitman after receiving Whitman's care during the war. William H. Millis, for example, wrote to Whitman more than a decade after the war to say, "We have not forgotten you & want to hear more from you. We have had a son borned since we heard from you & We call him Walter Whitman Millis in honer to you for Love for you." And in 1868 Benton H. Wilson wrote to tell Whitman that his (Wilson's) once-rocky marriage worked out and that, "My little baby Walt is well & Bright as a new dollar." This is suggestive, Coviello argues, because while Whitman didn't have any biological children, the pair of baby Walts bearing his name should pro...
