Walt Whitman's Journalism: Finding the Poet in the Brooklyn Daily Times

FAIN: RZ-271305-20

University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Lincoln, NE 68503-2427)
Kenneth Price (Project Director: December 2019 to present)

Computational linguistic research to establish the unattributed journalism of American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) at the Brooklyn Daily Times newspaper. (36 months)

Our proposed project will use a tested computational linguistic author attribution model to determine the beginning and end of Walt Whitman's editorial tenure at the Brooklyn Daily Times in the 1850s—a matter of longstanding debate in Whitman studies—as well as to determine which editorials he authored during that span. These editorials will then be transcribed, encoded, annotated, and made freely available on the Whitman Archive site. In addition to bringing clarity to a hazy portion of Whitman's biography and offering access to a new trove of understudied Whitman-authored documents, we hope that our method can bring a new tool to the study of authorship attribution and serve as a model for other scholars or projects confronted with similar cases of uncertain authorship, even when only a relatively small sample size of text is available.

Associated Products

"A Long-Lost Eagle Article Puts Walt and Jeff on the Map." (Article)
Title: "A Long-Lost Eagle Article Puts Walt and Jeff on the Map."
Author: Amy Kapp
Abstract: While researching annotations for an NEH-sponsored grant for the Walt Whitman Archive that focuses on the poet’s involvement with the Brooklyn Daily Times, the author came across an intriguing article titled “Visit to Baisley’s Pond” in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from June 30, 1858. Even though this article appears in the pages of a direct, local competitor of the Times, it appears to be authored by Walt Whitman. The short piece is written in the style of a journalistic “peep,” a specialty of the journalist Whitman. It focuses on a visit by an unnamed reporter to see the progress on the construction of the Brooklyn Waterworks and the engineers—including Walt’s younger brother, Thomas Jefferson Whitman. These men were responsible for the system of pipes and conduits that would carry the water from supply ponds, like Baisley’s, to the citizens of Brooklyn. Walt, as we now know, was heavily involved in advocating for the project in the pages of the Times. This advocacy, it appears, also extended into other papers.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/wwqr/article/31843/galley/140649/view/
Primary URL Description: direct link to article attributing authorship to Walt Whitman
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Walt Whitman Quarterly Review
Publisher: Walt Whitman Quarterly Review

"Walt Whitman, Editor at the New-York Atlas." (Article)
Title: "Walt Whitman, Editor at the New-York Atlas."
Author: Stephanie M. Blalock
Author: Stefan Schöberlein
Author: Jason Stacy
Author: Kevin McMullen
Abstract: Presents substantial evidence that Whitman was an editor of the New-York Atlas at the time the newspaper printed his series on "Manly Health and Training" (1858); argues that "Manly Health and Training" was not "a tossed-off piece for quick remuneration" but rather a serious project that Whitman hoped to turn into a book, revealing "another unrealized career path for Whitman's writing life in the late 1850s"; proposes that Whitman's tenure at the Atlas likely began around 1857 and ended by 1860; reprints as an appendix (205-208) a previously unknown piece published in the Atlas about "Manly Health and Training."
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/wwqr/article/31076/galley/139914/view/
Primary URL Description: direct link to article about Whitman's editorship of the New York Atlas
Periodical Title: Walt Whitman Quarterly Review
Publisher: Walt Whitman Quarterly Review

"'One of the Grand Works of the World': Walt Whitman’s Advocacy for the Brooklyn Waterworks, 1856–59" (Article)
Title: "'One of the Grand Works of the World': Walt Whitman’s Advocacy for the Brooklyn Waterworks, 1856–59"
Author: Jason Stacy
Author: Stephanie M. Blalock
Author: Stefan Schöberlein
Author: Kevin McMullen
Abstract: When the Brooklyn Waterworks opened in 1859, it was one of America’s most advanced water and sewer systems. Yet after Brooklyn was annexed by New York City, the waterworks’ history slipped into obscurity, despite having a now-famous champion: the “poet of America,” Walt Whitman, whose brother worked on the project. This article shows the Brooklyn poet’s fierce, multiyear lobbying effort for the waterworks in various newspapers and introduces a wealth of newly recovered Whitman writings on the issue. As a journalist, Whitman exemplifies the nineteenth-century press as an intermediary between expert engineers and popular readers. The poet brought precise expertise, translated engineers’ technical arguments into everyday language for his readers, and fought the resulting day-to-day political battles over construction in print. Whitman, then, is an under-appreciated case study of the confluence of technology, public health, and local journalism.
Year: 2024
Access Model: subscription only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Technology and Culture
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

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