Born in 1819: Whitman, Melville and Ward Howe
Elaine Showalter, Michael Schmidt, Peter Riley and Katie McGettigan with Laurence Scott on the 19th-century writers who shaped the idea of America.
Elaine Showalter, Michael Schmidt, Peter Riley and Katie McGettigan with Laurence Scott on the 19th-century writers who shaped the idea of America.
1819 was the year that Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and Julia Ward Howe were born. Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Melville's novels Moby Dick and The Confidence Man and Julia Ward Howe's passionate opposition to slavery and her advocacy of women's suffrage gave birth to the idea of America. But these authors also have a connection with England - a reading group in Bolton dedicated to Whitman, Melville's visit to Liverpool and Julia Ward Howe's encounters with Browning, the Wordsworths and Oscar Wilde.
Katie McGettigan is the author of Herman Melville: Modernity and the Material Text
Peter Riley's most recent book is Whitman, Melville, Crane and the Labours of American Poetry
Elaine Showalter is the author of the biography The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe
Michael Schmidt is one of the founders of Carcanet Press
You can find more information about research and events @Born1819
Listen back to or download the Free Thinking/麻豆社 Arts& Ideas discussion about Ruskin, Bazalgette and Arthur Hugh Clough https://bbc.in/2TLoOfA
Producer: Zahid Warley
Main image: L-R Peter Riley, Katie McGettigan, presenter Laurence Scott and Michael Schmidt in the Free Thinking studio (Elaine Showalter was in Washington).
Last on
Podcast: Born in 1819: Whitman, Melville & Ward Howe
Elaine Showalter, Michael Schmidt, Peter Riley and Katie McGettigan with Laurence Scott.
Broadcast
- Tue 7 May 2019 22:00麻豆社 Radio 3
Featured in...
American Culture—Free Thinking
Free Thinking explores America. Guests Claudia Rankine, Marilynne Robinson, Peter Bourne
Prose and Poetry—Free Thinking
Fact, fiction, key authors and contemporary voices from around the world
Arts
Creativity, performance, debate
Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019
Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival
Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life