Member Reviews
I love Walt Whitman and this book just reaffirmed my love. It was a great read to just meander through. Slowly enjoying his words. The author found a great mix of Whitman’s work.
This is a very short compilation of Whitman’s writings on health, both under his own name and a pen name. It’s sort of all over the place and is just sort of snippets, with rather an obsession on manliness. Some is good advice but a lot is just odd, and quite a lot is just stuff he came up with, like a beard protects your health. It definitely has a sort of know-it-all tone that didn’t feel entirely justified, as he had no training in the matter other than what worked personally for him (and it clearly didn’t work that well).
He was big on walking, cold baths, meat, few carbs, sleep, fresh air and avoiding doctors and medicine. I agree with a lot of that but you can also read his advice in many one page web articles for free. I believe the pdf of his health articles is also online for free if you want to go right to the source.
It also should be noted that Whitman spent most of his life in poor health with a number of mysterious illnesses (one reason he mistrusted doctors— they could never figure out what was wrong with him). So perhaps this short book is best viewed as a historical novelty for fans of the author.
I read a digital review copy of this book via NetGalley.