In Walt We Trust

"Marsh shares his affection for Walt Whitman in this gentle, thoughtful consideration of the poets relevance to 21st-century America. Beset by moral malaise in his 30s, the author & suffered from fully-grown doubts, not just growing doubts, about the meaning of life and the purpose of our country. Whitmans insights on death, money, sex and democracy buoyed his spirits Marsh confesses his love for the legendary poet, and by the end of this insightful homage, readers are likely to feel the same." ~Kirkus Reviews

"A beautiful, moving, and original book about our nations greatest poet." ~Mark Edmundson, University Professor, University of Virginia; author, Why Teach?

"A personal and engaging book based mainly on close reading of Whitmans poems and prose works placed alongside reflections on the state of contemporary America. Even if you do not buy into Marshs big idea that Whitman can save us all, you will find much to admire in this charming and intelligent book of essays on Americas foremost poet." ~Jimmie Killingsworth, author of Whitman’s Poetry of the Body and Walt Whitman and the Earth

"Marsh rises to the challenge of surveying the broad banks of Whitmans work. Prophetic, timely, and not nearly as impractical as he may sometimes seem (though just as flighty), Whitman is to Marsh just as much a poet for his time as for oursthough we have the benefit of hindsight to adopt the wisdom of his foresight." ~Boston Globe

"One of the most engaged and engaging books on Whitman that Ive read in many years. Once every generation or so, we need a book like this one to remind us why, in the twenty-first century, it is still so essential to keep Whitman close at hand." ~Ed Folsom ,Professor of English, The University of Iowa; editor, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review

"Walt Whitman has been and remains our unacknowledged founder. Born as Thomas Jefferson was fretting that the revolutionary & Spirit of 76 was being lost, Whitman grabbed the twin standards of enlightenment and possibility and carried them across the bridge from the days of Tom Paine to the present. His radical journey is our radical journey, and John Marsh captures the very essence of Whitman, and America, in this brilliant book." ~John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation