The collection of essays explores the transnational and intermedial (music, visual arts, digital media) legacy of Walt Whitman. It provides examples of his influence as well as suggestive parallels in contemporary poetry and thought. One common concern is the question of Whitman’s understanding of democracy and its consequences for poetry and art. Revisiting Whitman has no revisionist agenda. Nor is it nearly celebratory: it also shows tensions and ambivalences in the oeuvre of "The Good Gray Poet."

Winfried Herget has been professor of American Studies at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität since 1978. From 1968-1970 and 1981-1982 he was a fellow and visiting professor at Harvard University. His research interests include colonial American culture, political culture and rhetoric, religion and politics, American-German relations and modern American novel and drama.