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Whitman Archive Title: Religions—Gods
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Whitman Archive ID: bpl.00003
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Repository ID: Whitman Mss.7
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Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in The Walt Whitman Collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts Department, Boston Public Library
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Repository Title: Notes on 'Religions—Gods'
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Date: about 1856
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Genre: poetry, prose
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Physical Description: 2 leaves, handwritten
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Content:
Two pages of reading notes on various world religions and religious figures, based partly on Constantin-François Chasseboeuf comte de Volney's
Ruins; or Meditations on the Revolution of Empires
(Paris: Levrault, 1802). Edward Grier suggests that "the other material probably came from WW's reading in Bunsen or in magazines" (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984] 6: 2024). Included are lists of names, definitions, quotations, descriptions, and dates. Many of the notes are written on small sheets of paper which have been glued to the larger sheets. Whitman drew upon this material explicitly in writing "Salut au Monde!," which was first published as "Poem of Salutation" in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
.
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