Live Oak, with Moss: Walt Whitman's Secret Love Poems

A scholar and illustrator bring to light the secret love poems of Walt Whitman. 

As he was turning forty, Walt Whitman composed a sequence of twelve poems and compiled them in a small handmade book he entitled Live Oak, With Moss—but never exactly published them. The verses describe an unhappy love affair with an unnamed man and are considered among the most adventurous and homoerotic work he ever wrote. Whitman pulled the twelve pieces apart in order to obliterate the narrative and rearranged them into other sections of "Calamus Lovers" section in Leaves of Grass. The original sequence was only restored by scholars in recent years, and has now been published with an essay by Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener and illustrated by Caldecott Award–winner Brian Selznick. 

On the occasion of Whitman’s bicentennial, Karbiener and Selznick speak about the original collection and make the case for it as a source of inspiration and cause for celebration. 

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PRESS 
Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc.) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Sara Beth Joren at sarabethjoren@nypl.org. For all other inquiries, please contact publicprograms@nypl.org.

Major support of the Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50 exhibition and related programming is provided by The New York Community Trust, Hermes Mallea and Carey Maloney, and the TD Charitable Foundation and TD Bank. Additional support is provided by Time Warner and the Magnus Hirschfeld Endowment Fund.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, Jonathan Altman, and Miriam and Ira D. Wallach.

ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.