The Critic

The editor of the Critic, Jeanette L. Gilder, sought out Whitman as an important writer of the era when she and her brother, Joseph B. Gilder, founded the literary magazine in 1881. In fact, Whitman's series "How I Get Around at Sixty and Take Notes" was set to begin in the first volume of the Critic. Whitman later published several poems with the Critic. But most of his contributions to the periodical were prose pieces including notes on Emerson, Poe, and Shakespeare as well as a piece titled "Walt Whitman in Camden" which Whitman submitted under the name "George Selwyn" in February 1885. Gilder's decision to publish Whitman's work as well as to publish articles about the poet written by herself, reflects the reputation that Whitman had gained as a major literary figure as well as the public's interest in his life and health.

Poems

"The Dead Tenor." Critic 5 (8 November 1884): 222. Reprinted in the "Sands at Seventy" annex to Leaves of Grass (1888).

"Yonnondio." Critic 11 (26 November 1887): 267. Reprinted in the "Sands at Seventy" annex to Leaves of Grass (1888).

"To the Year 1889." Critic 14 (5 January 1889): 7. Reprinted under the new title "To the Pending Year" in Good-Bye My Fancy (1891).

"The Pallid Wreath" Critic 18 (10 January 1891): 18. Reprinted in Good-Bye My Fancy (1891).

Bibliography

Blodgett, Harold W., and Sculley Bradley, eds. Leaves of Grass: Comprehensive Reader's Edition. New York: New York University Press, 1965.

Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines, 1865-1885. Vol. 3. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1938.

Myerson, Joel. Walt Whitman: A Descriptive Bibliography. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993.

Roberson, Susan L. "Jeanette L. Gilder, (1849-1916)." Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia. Ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings. New York: Garland, 1998.