Now the Drum of War is an engaging book that focuses on a specific period in the life of Walt Whitman -- the period of the Civil War when he was both most prolific and most most artistically and emotionally mature. And it iss a beautiful portrait of the man's larger-than-life personality. His charisma and attraction. The way he channeled his emotions and desires into a full-on embrace of life. If there was ever a person who lived as he wrote, it was Whitman at this period.

It is also sensitive and touching depiction of his work in the hospitals caring for, being a companion, to the wounded soldiers of the Union Army. And between the author's accounts of Whitman "on the homefront" and his brother George on the front lines a really good account of the emotional life of the soldier -- not as a military tool, but simply as a young man with a gun desperate for letters from home. Not to mention a wonderful account of the emotional life of that family left at home, waiting for news of him. The book made me think of the first section of Louis Menand's The Metaphysical Club, devoted to Oliver Wendell Holmes, in the way it talked about what the Civil War meant, how it was felt, rather than how it was conducted or how it was won and lost.

I will say that if you are a person who knows little about Whitman, the man, (as I was and am) then Now the Drum of War is perhaps not the best place to start. The scope of the book is too narrow, too tightly focused on a few specific, albeit paramountly important, years in the life of a man whose very nature tends to explode the confines of whatever boundaries and definitions we put around him. So I was conscious, while reading, of a lack of context that was wholly due to my own ignorance as a reader. I didn't feel able to read objectively or critically--I was forced to accept, for example, the author's own perspective on Whitman's mother, (about whom there are many theories) and his own interpretations of Whitman's poetry in the light of particular events like the assassination of Lincoln. But I felt the need to accept them with reservations, always uncomfortably aware of my own inadequate knowledge, and how much I was taking on faith, as it were.

For this reason the next books I picked up were Whitman's own poetry and essays, and Justin Kaplan's acclaimed biography. And let me tell you, that has been a couple months of real delight and struggle. But I had the feeling I should have read them first.

In December 1862 Walt Whitman saw the name of his brother George, a Union soldier in the 51st New York Infantry, listed among the wounded from the battle of Fredericksburg. Whitman rushed from Brooklyn to the Washington D.C. area to search the hospitals and encampments for his brother. During this time Walt Whitman gave witness to the wounds of warfare by listening gently to the injured soldiers as they told their tales of battle. Whitman often spent time with soldiers recovering from their injuries in the Patent Office Building (now home to the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum), which had been converted into a hospital for much of the Civil War. Walt Whitman's experiences in Washington deeply affected his life and work and informed the core of his writing.

Robert Roper's "Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War" is an indispensable account of Whitman's time in Washington during the war. Roper's book examines the Civil War through the experiences of Walt Whitman and provides new findings on the care of wounded soldiers both on the battlefield and in large hospitals in the capital and its environs. Roper also focuses on Whitman's emotional relationships with the wounded troops he nursed. Walt Whitman journeyed from New York to find his wounded brother George and in the process Walt became a brother to thousands of wounded comrades. Whitman's volunteer work as a nurse during the Civil War is a story that needs to be told in all mediums. ( )

In this book Roper shows how to write a book about history and literature that takes advantage of the wealth of material available about the Whitman family. Now the Drum of War is the story of the Whitman family through the lens of the Civil War in their own words. The record of letters written amongst the family and Walt's manuscripts and notes combined with Roper's research into the era provide a full and fascinating glimpse into how America looked like on the battlefield, in the home and how Walt Whitman brought them together in his words. ( )

The Waltons go to war. The Whitmans were a large but closely knit family that met the challenge of war. At the time of the dreadful civil war, most of the children were grown adults themselves. Their letters are much more mature and perspicuous than the usual civil war soldier. Already 32 years of age, George Whitman rose quickly through the ranks to the rank of captain. Walt Whitman, who served as a kind of voluntary nurse, was even a decade older, having already written his Leaves of Grass. Jeff Whitman, water engineer, stayed out of the war (when drafted, he paid for a substitute). Unlike the Waltons, the Whitmans were not a healthy family. Besides the three strong brothers, there were Jesse, a mentally injured former sailor, Hannah, an unluckily married housewife, Andrew, a sick vaux-rien married to a prostitute, and Edward, the feeble-minded brother who shared Walt's bed. Mother Whitman served as the family nexus.

The author's masterful mix of military vignettes and family accounts is both a joy to read and offers a seldom seen multi-perspective of the war. As the book and the war progresses, the author focuses more and more on Walt Whitman and his poetry. A bit more about the other brothers might have made this outstanding book even better. And: "O captain, my captain" is missing and I wonder why. Highly recommended for both literary minds and civil war buffs. ( )

Walt Whitman was undoubtedly one of the most influential American poets and is hailed as the father of free verse. Personally, I have a love for Whitman, and even featured an excerpt from one of this poems on the inscription page of my doctoral thesis.

Robert Roper has compiled and written a detailed and fascinating biography of Walt Whitman and the Whitman family during the time of the American Civil War. Whitman was part of a larage family wsho undertook frequent correspondance with each other for the duration of their lives. Roper does not follow the common trend amongst Whitman biographers to dismiss his mother as unimportant and uneducated. Instead he places her firmly at the centre of their family life. He follows her from rented house to rented house as the family moved and features excerpts from the many letters that were exchanged between her, her sons and daughter-in-law.

Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" was the great work of his career but was denounced as a work of moral obscenity. There have been many debates over the years concerning Whitman's sexuality but these days it is more commonly accepted that he was homosexual.

During the Civil War, Whitman spent most of his days sitting in many of the soldiers' hospital that were dotted around Washington D.C. He would bring the soldiers small gifts and food and would sit with them for ages while they waited to die or recover. At this time, Walt's brother George, was fighting with the 51st New York Infantry and Roper frequently visits George's experiences. His tough and bitterly fought war makes an interesting counterpoint to the life Walt led in Washington.

This is an unusual take on the Civil War. It is a mix of military history, sociology and poetry. It is clearly extremely well-researched and is compelling reading. ( )