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About this Item

Title: A Strange Blade

Creator: unknown [unsigned in original]

Date: April 26, 1856

Whitman Archive ID: anc.00338

Source: Punch Magazine 26 April 1856: [169]. The electronic text for this file was prepared by Whitman Archive staff, who transcribed the text from a representation of the original (e.g., digital scan or other electronic reproduction, microfilm copy). For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the reviews, see our statement of editorial policy.

Contributors to digital file: Natalie O'Neal, Elizabeth Lorang, and Vanessa Steinroetter


AN American Rough, whose name is WALT WHITMAN, and who calls himself a "Kosmos," has been publishing a mad book under the title of Leaves of Grass. We can only say that these Leaves of Grass are fully worthy to be put on a level with that heap of rubbish called Fern Leaves, by FANNY FERN, and similarly "green stuff." The fields of American literature want weeding dreadfully.1


Notes:

1. This review later appeared in the National Anti-Slavery Standard. See: [Anonymous]. "[A Strange Blade]." National Anti-Slavery Standard (21 June 1856): 4. [back]


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