Unrequited: The Famous Authors Who Crushed On Walt Whitman

farm hand cheese. Pretty new. New to the game of rhyming with you, dang great new. Everybody's got to start somewhere here. That's funny. You're invited to have a beer, okay, alright, alright, So finally getting into season for a West World. You know, we don't have lives, so it's just TV. It's just you know, every day is just marked by the passing of television shows. Isn't that just everyone? Now? Though? Hey, how are you doing? Pretty good? Been watching this TV show?

Oh yeah, I've been watching this TV show. How interesting? Tell me about the TV show you watch? Tell me I should watch it. I won't tell you. You should watch this TV show. What a connection we've made. I see you in three years. This is another argument for living forever because I want to finish TV. I want to. I want to. I'm a completionist and I want to see all of TV at some point. Wow, do you mean TV in other countries as well of TV? I want to watch Korean soapar pres anal. Then can they

get like allion trillion episodes? I'm going to have to incredible. I'm gonna have to get you know, screens going at the same time. It's going to look like the last scene in the Matrix two. Just TVs everywhere, So I I guess sensory overload. I look at that anything, take the r C A cable and I run it into all the TVs. They said, there's a box and then

I plug that into my brain. Okay, it would be funny, though, I have to say, like if you just like if I was suddenly given martial arts prowess, but no more muscles than I already have, Like I could kick and punch, but they wouldn't have a lot of power behind them. Right. Well, they also had the technology that I'm waiting for, where they just plugged a bunch of needles into your skin

and rebuild your muscles while you just lay there. There was The only Star Wars book I ever read was Shadows of the Empire, and Prince She's Or was the guy in that. And I remember he had like a little electronic device that he plugged that he put on his body and it electronically contracted his muscles while he was doing other stuff, so he was working out without having to work out. They they sort of have that. I think it's mostly you know, yeah, it's it's mostly

snake oil. But if they could get that tech going for you know, saved me a lot of time. We spent a whole hour at the gym this morning just then out there pumped some iron. I never read any Star Wars books, but I did read the novelization of Independence Day, Independence Day, the novelization how to hold up The movie is better you're reading it going, I guess

I wish I was watching it. I had, I distinctly remember even as a kid, I knew this was silly, But I had the novelization of the movie Jurassic Park. And but there's there's already a novel of this. But you know, they are very different. They are very different. And this one had cool pictures in the middle one. It was hard to find pictures of movies you can just get You could just go on the internet and find a picture from a movie. You had to buy a book that had him in the center. It's a

very big selling point. Like the middle of this book there's screenshots from the film, like what eight full color. It's like, yeah, yeah, it's like watching the movie without watching the movie. Those were the days. They were some days that tough. Back then. We had to We had tough it out. Use our imagination to read the novelization of a movie we already. That was another thing. Lego sets, you know, they just had generic sci fi Lego sets. They didn't have a Star Wars Lego set. I had

to make my own Star Wars Lego set. I used my imagination. Damn it. Now it's all brand The most Grandpasha you say is the Lego drives me crazy doing it all for him. He kids today they got no imagination branded this and that. When I was your age, we opened that box and we pretended, well it's time to lego this banter and get into the story. Today we're back with Walt Whitman today. Yeah, and hopefully enjoyed the first episode where he found he made his true

love Peter Doyle. And you know Cruise for some Assid was out there. Yeah. Again, you think you think of writers, it's like very solitary people, and in a lot of ways he was. But that doesn't mean you know, I'm not dead, right do I? If you writers, if you brick us, do we not bleed? If you shake that ass in front of us? Do we not want to thurstday?

Do we not? First? Walt was thirsty, but yeah, when we last left Walt, Yeah, he had met his true love Peter Doyle, He had finally gained some literary acclaim for his poems So Captain, My Captain and Lilacs in the Dooryard, and he was even getting an addition of Leaves of Grass published in the UK Across the pond Um, even though it had been edited quite a bit, which he was not very happy about. He didn't like to edit his work down, but he's like fine, whatever whatever

it takes. But his words certainly won the hearts of at least two authors in England and Ireland, and their letters to Walt are so full of love and adoration and passion that they could make you blush. So let's hear about the joys of nineteenth century fan boys and the heartbreak of friends zoning. Oh my, okay, let's go. Hey, they're French, Come listen. Well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no matchmaking a romantic tips. It's

just about ridiculous relationships, a lover. It might be any type of person at all, and abstract concept from a concrete wall. But if there's a story. Were the second Glance show Ridiculous Romance a production of I Heart Radio and Gil Christ was an englishwoman. She married at twenty three years old. She had four kids with her literary critic husband, and they didn't make much money, but he was very highly respected in the writing community. So they're friends.

Included people like George Elliott and Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin and Christina Rosetti. Surely AUTHORI names names that probably mattered to a lot of people I'm not familiar with not too familiar with many of them either. But but if you were big, they were, then name you were late nineteenth century literature person whoa man. It's like we just named the Beatles. That's right, Oh ship, people just knocking down barriers to get to Christina Rosette's right. Her

neighbors were like, who's who, Who's what? What wrote? Who wrote some ship? Who's who? Who wrote them? Well, Anne's husband tragically died of scarlet fever when Anne was only thirty three years old. And Anne was like, extremely smart, she's very well read. She was interested in science and philosophy and beauty and all of these things. And so she decided, you know what, I'm going to finish my husband's biography of William Blake, the Pope. Uh little lamb.

That's right. Dost thou know who made them? You're a big You're William Blake fan. Now I would not say that, but I knew William Blake well, partly from Oh I know what it's from the Blade Runner video game. The bad guy in that quoted a lot of William Blake. He said, what was it? It was, um, hang on, I know this one. Uh yeah, you know what? Quick stop poetry corner to read this William Blake. Bo. I was angry with my friend. I told my wrath. My wrath did end. I was angry with my foe. I

told it not. My wrath did grow and that was like his his thing in the game. Yeah, those replicants, very poetic androids. Well, and look how educational the Blade Runner video game was. Yeah, I learned about William Blake. You know. I bet your teachers tried to interest you in William Blake, didn't get anywhere. But then that Blade Runner video game, boom. You could just pull it out of your ass. You said that without even looking it up. It's called I did have to look up the title.

It's called a Poison Tree. There's a lot more too, it I just that's a selection. I do like that. Actually. Well, Anne's husband had been working on a very good biography of William Blake, and so when he died before he was able to finish it, so and it's like, you know, well,

let me take up the pen get this done. And with the help of Christina Rossetti's brothers, Gabriel and William Rossetti, who were publishers, UM the Blake biography was published in eighteen sixty three, too great acclaim and and Gil Chris. Her name started to really means something to a lot of people. Um And a few years later, in eighteen sixty seven, William Rossetti read Leaves of Grass and he

fell hard for it. He said, quote, it was the most sonorous, poetic voice of the tangibilities of actual and perspective democracy. But he decided, you know, he would cut the volume in half and publish it with the subtitle A Selection of Poems by Walt Whitman, so he could kind of leave out the more salacious stuff, probably the calumus clusters typically um to make it more plaudible for

British readers. And again, Walt women was not thrilled by this chase, but he was like, fine, whatever, whatever cells because that He's like, I guess if that's what it takes, then fine. Um. And William thought, you know, and I would like this thing. I think I'm gonna give her a copy. So he sends one over to her and she reads it, and Anne was immediately a fangirl for life.

She told her a publisher, William Rosetti, and a letter, quote, your edition of Walt Whitman's poems holds me entirely spellbound, and I go through it again and again with deepening delight and wonder. It moved her so much that she anonymously published a glowing review called an English Woman's Estimate of Walt Whitman. It was so full of praise and full just complete comprehension of his work that Walt said he'd never get a better review in his life. She

got it, Yeah, like this, whoever wrote this? They get it. Two years later and decided that she was going to reveal that she was the writer of that essay in a very passionate personal letter to Walt Whitman, it said, quote in May eighteen sixty nine, came the voice over the Atlantic to me, Oh, the voice of my mate. It must be so. My love rises up out of the very depths of the grief and tramples upon despair.

I can wait any time, a lifetime, many lifetimes. I can suffer, I can dare, I can learn, grow toil. But nothing in life or death can tear out of my heart the passionate belief that one day I shall hear that voice say to me, my mate, the one I so much want, bride, wife, indissoluble, eternal. It is not happiness. I lead with God, for it is the very life of my soul. My love is It's life.

Dear Walt, my god. Heyo, and the first letter she said to him, and Walt slowly folded it back up, put it back in the envelope, threw it into the sea. My bride, I never saw this. Yikes, yikes, that is coming on a little strong, a little bit. Yeah, She's like, I'm not holding back. I tell you exactly what's going on with me, Dear Walt loved your book, and also I would cut out my heart and give it to you as you have cut out your heart and given it to me on ages. Clearly, No, he actually responded

to this letter very graciously. We talked to him, being generous, pretty non judgmental guy, like, let me you know, I see what's going on here. So he basically was kind of telling her like, yeah, you're so cool that you understood. I put my whole heart and soul into my book Leaves. I've given everything I've got to it. You're so cool for understanding it. And I guess that does make us sort of mate that technically in a way, like really

really good friends. But over the next several years, she would write to him many times about her ardor and her devotion and everything, like how much she admired him and wanted to be with him and everything, even though he was not very responsive. After a ten months silence from him, she wrote him a letter where she's like, Okay, maybe I came on too strong right out thinking I'm sorry about that. I won't write to you like that anymore.

I want you to know that I would be totally cool to just be friends with you, Like we don't need to do the bride wife made thing. That's fine, I'm cool, You're cool. We're cool every school here. But then in the very next line, she's like, but I love you, and I would die for you and would be perfect together, and I would had out my heart and serve it up on a PLATTERU for you, And can't you say that? It's just like immediately flips the scribes,

Oh my god. But in eighteen seventy three, sadly Walt had a stroke and this paralyzed him and had affected his health for the rest of his life. He moved to Camden, New Jersey to live with his brother George and his mother Peter Doyle remember his love that he found in the first episode of The bus Driver Long term relationship. He moved nearby as well to help take

care of Walt. But it was just a really tough time around this year because besides the stroke, Walt's mother as well as one of his beloved sisters died just one after the other. He wrote to Ann that he was sorry that he hadn't been in touch. Life had been tough lately. You know, I'm going through a lot right now. I know everybody says that, but I kind of really have been. But he let her know that

he was okay, she shouldn't worry about him. Maria Popova on the Marginalien dot Org writes, quote, he then did something astound, something the effect of which on a love struck heart he must not have realized, he wrote, quote the enclosed ring I have just taken from my finger and sent to you with my love. Oh Walt, no, no, no, oh my god. Well Anne gets this ring that her the object of her obsessions sent her, and of course she's like a drill, my beloved. I will wear this

ring until I die. I could feel you in it. It will never leave my finger. This is the most important to my pressure, my precious ring, and no one can take it from me. It's my own. And then she's like, hey, since you sent me this ring. How about I moved to America? Isn't that a great idea, Walt, I'll just come there ship. Then of course it's like, uh no, that's okay, that's really not necessarily like you're good.

Where are you at? Maria Popova theorizes that Well was not just concerned about, you know, her expectations for a romantic relationship between them, or possibly having to reveal his you know, true sexuality to her, any of that. All that was probably going on in his brain. But Maria kind of is like, also, he must have realized that she has put Walt on this pedestal that is impossible to live. Yeah, so he's like, if you meet me

in person, all I can do is disappoint you. I can't be the man you your mate that you want. I mean, I'm never going to live up to whoever you've got in your brain that you're writing too. Because I love your letters, but I don't know who this guy is. Because when you, you know, don't meet your heroes, isn't just that they'll be pieces of ship. It's often that just like you have set, you have created a version of them that can't exist right, And you will

inevitably be disappointed, not necessarily because they're bad people. That that that quote I think misinterpreted a lot of this, like don't meet your heroes because they'll be piece of sh But it's just like, don't meet your heroes because they cannot possibly be the character you've created. Right, right, They're going to do something stupid and you're gonna go right, They're gonna be human beings exactly. You I hate human

being a god among men. But Anne would not be persuaded against moving, and she was like, honestly, her daughter Beatrice wanted to become a doctor, and in England it was basically impossible for a woman to do that because they were not allowed in the hospitals to complete their clinical training, so they could read a book all day long, but they couldn't actually go work with any patients or anything. So she's like, well, Beatrice wants to be a doctor,

you can get that training in America. I'm moving to America to be a good mom, not because I'm thirsty for this poet. I am a wonderful mother. So in eighteen seventy six, she sets sale, moved herself and three of her kids to America and unfortunately, Anne was not love struck enough to just show up on his doorstep in Camden, New Jersey or something with like a bagpact um. Instead,

she settled in Concord, Massachusetts. She made friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and her other literary neighbors there, and she did finally get to meet Walt in person, and we will see what that meaning is like. Right after this commercial break, welcome back to the show everyone. Right before the break, we talked about Ann's daughter Beatrice wanting to become a doctor in England, but they wouldn't let women

into the hospitals to complete their training. I'm just I'm just trying to imagine the well, I mean, it's not hard to imagine what the thought process was there, you know. I'm sure it's like, oh, I have a woman in the hospital, of all to distracting. Well, if I'm doing all hot surgery and I see a boob, the hand could go crazy. Whoa, I'll be so distracted. I do think it's weird though, because I feel like there must have been female nurses still. Yeah, well your nurses you

could wait outside. We don't need you. You gotta like run us, you know, sponge and they gotta like do a bucket brigade to get the sponge to it, the big blanket over their heads, just a really long stick from outside the window. Or male nurses or male nurses, which I'm that's what I'm like. I guess I would have to look into it, because I don't know for sure.

But maybe it really was just the Great War that made a lot of women, you know, start nursing because the men were off fighting, right, kind of changed a lot of medical stuff. Maybe, I don't know. I don't know. If you know, let me know. I didn't look it up. Oh ship turns out a brain attached to two legs and two hands or any number of legs and any murmur of hands is still useful to me. Amazing, but still not see a boob. Okay, So Anne comes to

America and she finally meets her Adonis. Walt Whitman, by the way, is it in his sixties? Well, Maria Popova writes, quote, under the hard light of reality and Gilchrist's idealized romantic love soon melted into a warm and large hearted affection that would bind the two for the remainder of their lives. Well, that's nice. Yeah, so she sees him, but she's like, wait a minute, I have definitely I've been picturing Joe

Manginello and I show. I thought this was my Salt and Pepper's daddy, but turns out it's just a regular. It's like an old guy, and you know what's really cool guy. I love you, You're so great. But what was I thinking? Super cool old guy who's going to

be a great friend of mine. But I'm I'm glad that she didn't like get stubborn about it and stick with you know, because some people do that even if they don't really aren't really in love, They're just like, well that's what I thought, So I have to stay with that somehow. I'm glad she was like, no, we talked, we had a lovely meeting, and you know what, this is just a really good friend. Yeah, just like oh oh yeah, oh this makes more sense. Actually, you know what.

It turns out I was living in La La Lands in my head and this is actually way more like reality now that I think. I wonder if she's like, I just really missed my husband and we you know, like like with Walt, I would tell him what I thought about things. I read and I, you know, just a similar intellectual maybe connection to that, and she's sort of like, did some transference type type thing maybe, And when she met him, she's like, I don't really want to Yeah, I don't want to fuck you. I don't

want to live with you. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm just so glad that I did at least she did reach out though and make this wonderful relationships between them. Well, if it just shows you truly how intoxicating language can be and how powerful these words were that Walt was writing. And he's like, getting ladies, you know, five thousand miles away, all turned up. They're nickers, were in a twist, So after that they're like total buzz.

Walt often joined Anne and her kids for dinner. Her kids started calling him Uncle Walt, and one of her sons even painted a portrait of him. Walt wrote of her quote, among the perfect women I have met, I have known none more perfect in every relation than my dear, dear friend and gil Christ. He also wrote quote, I have that sort of feeling about her which cannot be easily spoken of love, strong personal love, to reverence, respect. You see, it won't go into words. All the words

are weak and formal. What a what a thing to hear someone say about I can't. I don't have the language to describe how good I feel about you, especially a poet. I mean the whole job. And I wonder if he's yeah, I don't know. It just seems to be such a powerful relationship with both of them, even though it ended up not being a love connection that

she might have been wishing for. It, really they their connection mattered so much to both of them, like that the world's greatest portrait artist was like, I can't capture you. I cannot paint a painting beautiful enough that it looks like you or like a chef. You know, I can't make you soup good enough. I can't make a souper dessert of damn, sounds like you don't want to make a super So Ann survived her own little friend zone here with Walt, like the Phantom Zone, but she got

brought back. Can I talk about the friend zone for a second little side track? And we got a lot of side tracks today, But it's you know, God, it's garbage the way people the way people use it, and

it's I'll say it's very misused. I think that the the idea of the friend zone got uh kind of taken over and obscured and and and used very differently than it's an original intention, because a lot of people are like, oh, this girl is this girl who owes me sex or a relationship, you know, built me up and then plunked me in the friend zone and actually won't give it to me whatever, when in fact, to me, it was always like you meet someone, because I've done this,

You meet someone and you're like attracted to them, and you hang out for a while, and like six months go by and you're like, oh, wait, no, I can't

sleep with you. We're friends like buddies, you know. Yeah, well, I think I think you're so right, because the problem is that we're not willing to admit that there's many, many, many different types of love and connection and like, like Walt was tired in in the last episode, we kind of talked about how Walt was like, it doesn't need to be sex, but there should be romantic affection between men. I should be hugging you and kissing you and telling

you how wonderful you are. That is food for your soul to get that from your peer and I think that's important, you know, and that I think that's true of women too, you know, having that that and you do feel attracted, right, It's not necessarily a sexual attraction, but you know, you're in a room with people, You're like, I'm attracted to this person. I need to find out more about you. You seem interesting. I don't know why,

but your vibes are working for me. And it doesn't mean that you're like feeling a tingling in your loins. It's just like I feel like we could have a connection that is important to me. So yeah, I just wish people. It feels like people approach a lot of relationships like could we maybe fuck instead of like the foundation should be, do we have a connection here, whatsoever? And whatever that is, however far it goes, however intimate it gets. I'm happy that that added my life, you

know what I mean. Yeah, we were friends zoned and then we got married, friend zone was collapsed, and then we're not friends at all, absolutely not no longer friends. So Anne did return to England eventually, but and she did maintain a correspondence and a deep friendship with Walt right up until she died in and Walt wrote just a beautiful poem when she passed. So let's head over

to poetry corner. And here going somewhere a poem for Anne Gilchrist by Walt Whitman, My science friend, my noblest woman friend, now buried in an English grave, and this a memory leaf for her dear sake. Ended our talk. The sum concluding all we know of old or modern learning, intuitions, deep, of all geologies, histories, of all astronomy, of evolution, metaphysics, all is that we all are onward, onward, speeding slowly, surely bettering life, life and endless march and endless army,

no halt. But it is duly over the world, the race, the soul, in space and time, the universes, all bound as is, befitting each all surely going somewhere. That really like brings a tear to my eye. I mean, I think the reason this poem makes me cry is that you can feel how much pain and how much he's thinking like. But the good thing is that's the point, right, The point is we're constantly going forward. You can't go back, you can't stop. You just every day wake up and

you keep moving on. That means her soul is still moving somewhere, it's still part of everything, it still has a place. And I don't know, I just find that beautiful until we figure out how to go back, and then well then it's over. I mean in a good way. And then it's in a good way. Look, why, okay, why are we so drawn to it? Why do we want to travel through times so badly? If not as a as an inspiration to figure it out? Yeah, but I also think that you can't go back in time.

I think you're I think you can go forward in time? Right? What was it the theory that like you could only go back to when time travel was invented, but time before. I've always said, you have to build a receptor first, right, you have to build a receiver unit before before you

can and then you in the future. Maybe maybe, But honestly, from the from the probably forty five minutes wheth the YouTube videos that I've watched on the subject, uh huh, I think that it sounds like backwards time travel might not be quantum lee possible quantumly, but forward could. It's all about you know, it's all about gravity and uh, time is plane and space moves in this. It's like

you're at a diagonal. So you've got a graph go in two directions, and one space and one's time, and you can move through one, and then if you go through the other, you change the shape of the line. So now you're all experts too. You're welcome. I feel like I've really gotten caught up on quantum physics. You go, so onward and Gilchrist through time and space, onward, surely going somewhere. But even though Anne was such a fan, the UK edition was getting slammed across the land. Oh now,

who's a poet? Wal It would be like rhyming boring. The Marginalien quotes one review as saying that Walts four themes America, democracy, personality, and materialism where shallow, and that Walt thought the answer to all life's problems was just to say nice things about everything, which is the most grumpy ship ever heard in my life. And the review goes on to say, quote his style has nothing in common with other Bible, Shakespeare, Plato, or any other hitherto

on the name in literature. But that is grotesque, ungrammatical, and repulsive. Rupsodies can be faintly compared only to the painful ravings of many acidents. He concludes, quote, it has been said of Mr Whitman by one of his warmest admirals, he is democracy. Did I think he is in his compositions at least being like it? Ignorant, sending noisy, of course, and chaotic. I never what's like I drive by for democracy? Let me take the opportunity to share a few words

about democracy. I like the monarchy. Well, I guess they were still they were still pretty sore from the American Revolution, right, I guess. So it was only a few old. So you know, everybody's a critic. You know, there's always something trendy to hate on. So the cool thing to do at this point in England was to trash talk Walt Whitman and college kids all over and get together and they'd see who could disc leaves of grass the heart

like the TikTok joy. They were like, I want to dump this bucket of ice water on my head and then tell you why Walt women sucks. Well, we're gonna hear about some of these college kids, one in particular, who you have definitely heard of, and his relationship to Walt Whitman. Right after this commercial break, Welcome back to

Ridiculous Romance. So in Ireland, there was one college boy who joined his friends as they laughed and teased while taking turns reading Walt's poetry, probably in some like stupid look at me, whoa, here's a song of myself, blah blah blah, I'm so special sound by barbaric you are, I'm so clever. But this one particular boy, he wasn't so sure about slam and Walt's work because he himself. It was the future author. You know him as the creator of one of the most celebrated horror stories of

all time. This book spawned an entire genre. It's been made into countless movies. His main character sucked, that's right. It was none other than brom Stoker cool. And when he heard his friends during their way through Leaves of Grass one night, he decided that he had to get his hands on a copy. He's like, there's something here, right, something speaking to me. Yeah, something about the nighttime. And this book makes me thirsty too. I'm a fleshy, sensual creature. Now.

Bram Stoker stayed up all night reading the entire book of Leaves of Grass, and it moved him so much that he sat down and he wrote this stream of consciousness fan letter. Once he woke up in the harsh light of the morning, it embarrassed him so much that he'd written this that he tucked it away into a drawing his desk and he did not send it. We've all written that letter, you know, I know, right, But he didn't tear it up. No, he was just like, let me put this away. This is not for now.

I don't know what I was thinking last night, but man, that that book really turned me on. And I was not thinking with a clear head. Yeah the blood was Russian,

but I don't know where. But he did start defending Walt Whitman in his classes and his literary circles, and he started to make a name for himself as a drama critic, because you know, all these other kids are just ship talking, making dumb fart jokes about Walt Whitman's work, and he's like, well, I, well, I actually have something to critical cool to say about it and break it

down for you why it's so good. And not only did her eyes Dracula, but I also found a protocol at the end of a rainbow, like like I don't think brom Stoker sounded like a lucky Charms labor condiment. That's that's what you get here on ridiculous strips. But no. Finally, four years later brom Stoker was able to get up the courage to send this letter to Walt. This thing is over five pages long. You know. He got a

hand cramp. Oh yeah, And near the end he writes, quote, it was no small effort that I began to write, and I feel reluctant to stop. But I must not tire you anymore. If you would ever care to have more, you can imagine, for you have a great heart. How much pleasure it would be to me to write more to you. How sweet a thing it is for a strong, healthy man with a woman's eye and a child's wishes to feel that he can speak to a man who can be if he wishes father and brother and wife

to his soul. I don't think you will laugh, Walt Whitman, nor despise me. But at all events, I thank you for all the love and sympathy you have given me in common with my kind. Very interesting, Yes, he was like you could be my brother, my mom, my wife, my dog, my dentist. You could literally fill every hole in my life. And I mean that wink winkingly. You know any sympathy you have in common with my kind? Winker winker, winker, winker p s. I'm young and irish.

I know you like I am literate, but I can pretend a Maria Popova On the margin, Alien writes quote, it is hard not to wonder what Stoker meant by my kind. Surely those besotted with the poetic and governed by the profoundest true of nature and the human heart, but possibly also those cast out and made invisible by their time and their society for possessing a heart too defiant of convention. I like how she dresses it up as well in metaphor. It's true, but possibly also because

he's gay, he really saw himself. He did not make it much clearer, which I think is interesting too, because we know it was censored. A lot of the sexy, salacious stuff was taken out, but Brom's still picked up the message. What he picked up was Walt was putting down um. He said, I may not be able to see myself in a mirror, but I see you in these texts. One gay subtext to gay subtext. That's what brom Stocker sounds like. I did think Count Chocola is

a gay icons Well Count Chocula, Yeah, for sure. Countchoculas total most vampires, well vampires they live forever. They're like, what the why am I going to limit myself? True? That's so true. Why would got an eternity to go explore everything? That's why I love what we do in the Shadows because they're just like, I mean, what why? Why would I say? No? Billion years old and by the time Brom sent this band letter, he was a single man working in theater at an age when most

of his contemporaries would have already gotten married. So he's like an old bachelor by society standards. Um. When he was thirty, he finally did get married to Florence Malcolm, who was a celebrated beauty, and she chose Brom over her other suitor, Oscar Wilde. You might remember this actually from our Oscar wild episode, that he was really into Florence since she went with someone else. Okay, and at first Oscar was real but heard about this. Eventually, he

and Brom did become friends. From Brom Joker was a big fan of Oscar Wild and so they did become friends of him, did they become more than friends? Because what I'm saying, like for Florence, h her options like, well, I don't know. Maria Popova calls it a celibate relationship, although they did have one son together, so it was

not fully celibate. But she seems Florence seems to perhaps be a type of woman who did not particularly she wasn't like a real sexy lady, sort of a cool blonde I'm getting I got those vibes anyway from my reading. So yeah, even though she calls it a celibate union, maybe it's like a one and done situation, like they were like, well, get something going to you know, get the bloodline moving on, but otherwise I ain't touching you. And Popova points out that Dracula also has strong homo

erotic overtones like leaves of grass. I mean, we talked about, you know, penetrating your flesh with their teeth and so on. You know, it's a out of many different things. So it's not likely that the homoerotic overtones and leaves of grass were overlooked by brom Stoker. He definitely saw that ship and connected to it, there's those three chapters where Van Helsing is giving Jonathan Harker a blowjob. I mean, it's just like it even fully text. No that's not true,

but actually a side note, I didn't care for Dracula. Yeah, yeah, I got a big letter. Well that's what it's called. When it's all letters, you have to work so hard to get the story out of it. And I found a lot of the letters very tedious, and it's like kind of fascinating, you know, Blair Witch style, where you're like, look, if you piece all these together, you can pull a really scary story out of it. Like all right, but I gotta dear Mina. You know, I had a sandwich today.

I love your dearest Lucy. Oh, dear Lucy. Well, I also had a sandwich today and I met the strangest man. Love Mina. And that's just like that song. I know. It's kind of a book of its time because then people were reading letters all the time, whereas now we don't really read letters, so we're just like, why are you working right? And then they're like my god, and feel like I'm really there. Only six weeks between one

letter and the next thrilling edge of My carriage seat. Well, Maria concludes, quote, perhaps the gift of Whitman's poems for Bromstoker, beyond the enchantment of beauty and poetic truth, was the supreme gift a work of art can confer upon the beholder, the gift of being seen. Now, Walt did respond to Brahm's letter, and he even said that he would love to meet him someday, though he thought it wasn't likely. I mean, yeah, he's like bedridden at this point, he's

not traveling. He's like, I mean, if you happen to show up at my house, I guess. But they did. They met several times. Actually, bram was actually the manager for an actor, really famous actor at the time, and they would sometimes bring plays to America. The National Endowment for the Humanities quotes Bram as saying I found him all I had ever dreamed of or wished for in him, large minded, broad viewed, tolerant to the last degree, incarnate, sympathy, understanding,

with an insight that seemed more than human. Walt invited him to visit again any time he was in Camden and Brom and Brom probably said sure, yeah, Yeah, whenever I'm in Camden, New Jersey, I'll be sure to sing by No. Brom wrote, quote, need I say that I promised he was like Camden's about to get some plays. I was just always making my business on the tour to come to Camden at least for Bram meeting his hero. No problem. He he fully lived up to expectations. Now

by this time, Walt was mostly bedridden. He had suffered a series of strokes, but he did still receive visitors, including Brom Stoker two more times. He wrote letters and revised Leaves of Grass. He published several more editions. In the last week of his life. He was too weakened to hold a knife and fork even but finally, on March he passed away. More than a thousand people visited his wake. His coffin was barely visible under the piles and piles of flowers and wreaths that were sent in

in death. His legacy, of course, is just vast. One of his friends, Mary Widall Smith Costello, wrote once quote, you cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman. Now we mentioned at the top of part one all these pop culture references like fame and the Dead Poet Society. He inspired poets and musicians around the world. There is even a crater named for Walt Whitman on Mars. Walt Whitman isn't just the name of a crater on Mars, of course,

it is a crater where it is. There's this episode's Brooklyn quote that's just for me and uh Gianna rowe to say that. She also that you need Gianna. I hope we both got that reference. Man. Yeah, I hope somebody puts a crater of me on Mars one day. Wait a minute, no, I don't wish somebody makes a crater out of me on Mars. Okay, okay, like a star lac pit on Mars. But like they would just throw me at Mars and whatever crater I left my god Eli shape Looney Tune style crater. Now, I kind

of hope they do do that. It sounds pretty funny. You know, if I gotta go, that's not a bad way. It is a way to go. That is a way to go. So yeah, these too. You know, never got a romantic connection with Waltz, but we did get different different romance. Yeah, I think so, a romance of the maybe the soul in the brain rather than the body.

I love for sure, absolutely. I mean, at this point it seemed like Walt wasn't really probably very sexually active anyway, you know, with his health issues and just the age that he was at, you know, in the time that he was living in um, you know, surely he was kind of like, well, I had my fun back in New York City in my forties. Trust me, I've got I've got the other I've got the receipts right here

in this book, my Whitman's Sampler. Oh no, but I'll tell you what speculations station he could have made that whole damn book up. That's true. It's not hard to pick up a notebook and say, last night I slept with this person, and the night before this person he's like Frank William Peter. I'm gonna one of those will be like last night I slept with. Well, now I feel weird because it feels like I'm violating consent. I

have to make people up. I was going to list a bunch of you know, I was gonna put my my list on there, but I'll I'll make up some names. Last night I slept with Kate Clan Shirt that's a made up name. The night before I slept with you gotta long brown here. Last night I slept with Kate Clanchett. Uh you know what, forty nine blonde actress. Uh, you know, just a totally made up person. The night before I slept with Lanta Schmendrick. Uh, thirty four redhead actress's totally

made up people. I'm just coming up off the top of my head. Look, that would be confusing for historians. Yeah, no, it would actually be a lot more like Walt's letter to John Simmons, where he's like, no, bro, what's talk about case of if I don't do He's I got six kids out there, run around. I don't know where they are. Everyone's like, no, you don't. Historians pull up my book and they're like, it looks like this guy said that he slept with Kate Blanchett and didn't know

how to spell her name. We're pretty sure he was lying. Kate Blanchet has no such recollection. Kate Blanchet, of course, still alive in the year thirty two when we found this document. I mean, if anyone should be croyogenically frozen or just yeah, given the gift of eternal life. Well she is, else she'll be around some thousands of years. She'd use it. Well, you know, it's our it's our ability to stay on subject. It really makes this show

special about this Well that's what Whitman though. And I have to say, did not know any of this stuff about Stoker, about Anne gil Is, about Peter Doyle, about his Little Black Book. I mean I didn't know any of that. And again, if only they had covered that stuff in school, I feel like people would read poetry a lot more. God, I know, these guys lives were crazy, insane and interesting and like, I mean, that's how you write.

I mean, especially Walt, He's like, that's how you write poetry is you go live life and then you have something to write about. And you know that's very important before you put pen to paper. Do you have anything to say? Look is speaking of poets. I mean there's just so it's like rich lives. Obviously, it's people, like you said, they have something to say because they lived

you know, quite a lot. And I'll drop a teaser for our one day episode or rather forty six part episode on Emily Dickinson and her little Circle of lovers, because rights if we ever get to Lord Byron, that will have to be an we're gonna be. Aren't a new new podcast? Just The Ridiculous Byron season three? Just Lord Byron. That's it. Episodes on Lord Byron. Oh, I can't I need the variety. No, I think he'd be

maybe a Collette series style, But there's so much to say. Again, it's just wild lives, what women live in, just a beautiful life. I'm so amazed by this guy, his outlook and his just like unwavering I for beauty in the world. He never stopped noticing, you know, noticing the little things around him and thinking like, holy shit, this is incredible, wonderful world. And people also like those connections. Um, I

don't know. I just certainly a mindset that we should all aspire to, Yeah, find find the miraculous and every day It's very true. I mean, and he's not wrong. Again, if you dig down into everything, there's so much complicated

shit about a blade of grass. I mean, you know, if you really think about it, it's pretty amazing that anything works, or anything is what it is, or that it's here in this particular time, or that you are you know, that's it that'sh fills you with, like I think, a sense of gratitude and excitement about the world around you, you know, And that's what I get out of him. A lot is just a sense of wonder. I kind of want to read this little piece of leaves of

grass that I had found yesterday. It says, in folks nearest to you, finding also the sweetest and strongest and lovingest happiness, not in another place but this place, not for another hour, but this hour. Man in the first you see or touch, always in your friend or brother or nighest neighbor, woman, in your mother or lover or wife, and all else thus far own giving place to men and women. Mhm. That that especially happiness, not in another

place but this place, not another hour, but this hour. Uh. In fact, it reminds me of the words of two of my favorite philosophers, Bill S. Preston Esquire and Ted Theodore Logan, who said, you know, we've been all across the past, we've been to the future, we've been to the afterlife, and we realized the best place to be is here. The best time to be is now. Wow. Yeah, Bill and Ted are walt Woman's yea of today teaching us how to be excellent to each other? Also friends

with Abraham Lincoln as well, that's true. They also loved a Walt Whitman and Bill and Ted had a threesome at some point. Oh my god, can you Walt would have loved Bill and Tall a kind of dumb and you're so cute. Oh my god, this is my wheelhouse right here. Beeves of Grass would have ended with be excellent to each other and party on dudes. Well, on that note, yes, I think we should let y'all go that. What what better words to end on? So true? To carry that into your day? Yes, please let us know

what you thought of Waltz story. And we just think it's beautiful that we hope you did too. Reach out to us through email. You can get us at ridic Romance at gmail dot com right or we're on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Dianamite Boon and I'm at Oh great, It's Eli and the show is at ridict Romance. Thank you so much for tuning in spending your time with us today. I can't wait to bring you another episode next week. Stay tuned and we'll catch it in love

you by so long. Friends, It's time to go. Thanks so listening to our show. Tell your friend's names, Uncle's in this. To listen to a show doulas well dance