Emerson and Whitman

The most famous letter in American literary history, claims Robert Richardson in his Emerson biography, was Emerson's note to Whitman:

I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of 'Leaves of Grass.'  I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that American has yet contributed...  I greet you at the beginning of a great career.

The normal story is about Whitman's rude/brash decision to publish a second edition with Emerson's quote and name on the spine without asking permission.

But there's more to the story.  

For years, Emerson was nearly alone in his admiration for Whitman.  He was for Emerson the poet who had grasped more clearly than anyone else the idea that the poet is representative.  Whitman was indeed the poet Emerson had called for in "The Poet," the person who claimed little to nothing for himself but got his material and his strength by acting as the conduit and spokesman -- the representative -- of everyone he had ever met or heard or read about.

In another letter, he writes (to Secretary of State Seward, "If his writings are in certain points open to criticism, they show extraordinary power, and are more deeply American, democratic, and in the interest of political liberty, than those of any other poet."   Emerson suggested to Whitman to tone down some of the explicit references to sex in the "Children of Adam" section.  "He made it clear that his suggestions did not imply disapproval of the passages, the poems, or the poet but were made strictly with an eye to public acceptance."  In the end, he never changed the passages.

For his own part, Whitman claimed, "My ideas were simmering and simmering, and Emerson brought them to a boil."

Whitman considered Emerson "a man who with all his culture and refinement, superficial and intrinsic, was elemental and a born democrat." This judgment was in strong contrast to his assessment of Thoreau, whose great failing, said Whitman, was his "disdain, contempt for average human beings for the masses of men."

Emerson found in Whitman the great modern poet he was seeking. Whitman found in Emerson the justification for literature itself.

I often say of Emerson that the personality of the man -- the wonderful heart and soul of the man, present in all he writes, thinks, does, hopes -- goes far toward justifying the whole literary business -- the whole raft good and bad -- the whole system.  You see, I find nothing in literature that is valuable simply for its professional quality; literature is only valuable in the measure of the passion -- the blood and muscle -- with which it is invested -- which lies concealed and active in it. (my emphasis)