Felts & Renkl: Something Fierce
I Suspect There Is Something Fierce In You
Text from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass selected by Susannah Felts @ susannahfelts with artwork by Billy Renkl @ billyrenkl
Textiles by Dixie Webb
Collaborative 5-panel accordion-fold book referencing imagery by Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and several texts from Walt Whitman's (1819-1892) Leaves of Grass. The first edition contained 12 poems in 95 pages; it expanded with each new edition. By the time of the last edition in 1892, it included almost 400 poems. When it was first published critic Rufus Griswold called it a "mass of stupid filth."* Whitman lost his job; the book was banned repeatedly over time, including by the Boston District Attorney, as violating a law against "obscene literature."
These texts first appeared in the 1860 edition.
* ". . . for it is impossible to imagine how any man's fancy could have conceived such a mass of stupid filth, unless he were possessed of the soul of a sentimental donkey that had died of disappointed love. This poet (?) without wit, but with a certain vagrant wildness, just serves to show the energy which natural imbecility is occasionally capable of under strong excitement."