Walt Whitman's world in Manhattan before the Civil War is the setting for author Justin Martin's latest book on an American icon. Long before he became known as the Good Gray Poet, Whitman was a denizen of dingy Pfaff's basement saloon, noted as the cite of the country's first bohemian culture, a hangout for rebel artists and other eccentrics. Martin is the author of "Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America's First Bohemians." Bonus: Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director at Center Stage, recites two Whitman poems.
Walt and the New Bohemians
