I bought this little collection at a church book sale because it was too cheap to pass up. It contains poetry, letters, and prose in kind of an odd mish-mash. I think I found the letters the most fascinating, especially so soon after my other Civil War reading. It made me really want to read a biography of Whitman -- he led such an odd life.

Of course I liked the poetry as well, but I think I'll prefer reading Leaves of Grass and any other collections (if I ever get around to it -- jeez.) Juxtaposed with the letters I kept struggling to make narrative sense of them and connect them to his life story. ( )