Witty Whitman

   After opening up Mrs. Genesky's link, the first to fall in the eyes was the front of Whitman's notebook. If I had no information about the time period and Whitman himself, I would argue that the notebook is a very old and extensively used. First of all, the design of the notebook is old fashioned, as the cover is made by some type of leather, and none of the more typical elements of modern notebooks are present such as colorful print and pictures, spirals, paper or plastic cover. In addition, the age of the book can also be seen from the color and texture of the pages as they look as they have a rough surface and more are sand-colored instead of white. Another thing I noticed was the stamp on some of the pages. It is not clear what the stamp presets, but what it reminds me of is the back of American coins, with the bird surrounded by stars - a typical American National symbol.

  By looking at the pictures of the notebook pages, it can be seen that this book has been of great importance to Whitman. The book contains both dates, addresses, and ideas and questions about the community in which Whitman lived. On the last pages, sketches are included. I'm not quite sure who created the sketches or if they are all of Whitman, but from the first to the last sketch a development can be seen. The level of detail, the accuracy and lighting is some of the parameter that are changing from sketch to sketch. The development of the sketch might reveal Whitman's mental state and feelings, as artist often changes their style when their mood is changing. 

   Look through the notes made about the notebook, the stamp is described and partly support the statement/thesis I made earlier. The stamp is from the Library of Congress, which is a national library felt with reaches for the US congress. As I stated earlier the stamp might be a American National symbol, which I would argue that Library of Congress is. When it comes to the sketches, the notes conclude that all sketches was made by other people, but of Whitman himself. This might explain the change in style and detail of each of the sketches. Furthermore, the notes explains the importance of Pfaff's and the bar where they often would have a drink together. I think that this is a significant detail within the notebooks as the notes also described how Whitman often would take in notebook out a jot down inspirational ideas of the people in the bar, and this might have been thoughts used in his poems.