James Baldwin

Characters

Costume Designs by Lux Haac

Caroline: a girl, 17. She is in comfy clothing, she does not expect company, she is sick but mainly just looks a little weak. She doesn’t go out. She is cynical, over it, and does not let a stray “feeling” near the surface.

Anthony: a boy, 17. He is neat, poised, mature for his age. He’s an “A” student, a team player, a nice guy. He’s not really great around girls. He takes his homework very seriously. When he likes something he is all in.

Walt Whitman 1819-1892

“Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict my self, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” -

Photo by Matthew Brady

Born in 1819, Walt Whitman is considered to be one of the greatest American poets alongside the likes of Emily Dickinson. Though not quite the “homeless guy” Anthony suggests Whitman is in the script, Whitman did spend many years in the 1800s moving from region to region in the United States. Whitman was born on Long Island and lived both on Long Island and in Brooklyn during his time in New York, though he considered Brooklyn his true home. In fact, Brooklyn was where Whitman got his first job learning the trade of a printer and falling in love with the written word before a fire in the printing district ravaged the industry. By 17, Whitman was working in one-room schoolhouses on Long Island where he taught until 1841 when he turned his attention and career to journalism. Over the next decade, Whitman founded the weekly newspaper The Long Islander and the Brooklyn Freeman in addition to editing stints with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and the New Orleans Crescent. The latter stop, one that only lasts three months in 1848, is said to have inspired Whitman’s love for the South.

By July 1855, Whitman had published the first edition of Leaves of Grass, which at the time consisted of 12 untitled poems and a preface. A year later, the second edition was released, having grown to 32 poems plus a letter from Ralph Waldo Emerson praising the first edition. Whitman would continue to refine the book for the rest of his life, even after suffering a stroke in 1873 which left him partially paralyzed. He spent his final years working on additions and revisions to his final edition of Leaves of Grass. In total, Whitman published at least eight editions of Leaves of Grass, evolving from that 12-poem first edition in 1855 to an 1892 edition containing more than 400 poems. Whitman died on March 26, 1892.