Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working-Class Camerados

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Bibliographic Information

Charley Shiveley, ed. Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working-Class Camerados. San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1987.

Type: book ; Genre: biography, poetry, correspondence

Abstract

This book collects the correspondence between Whitman and many of his male friends and lovers, some of whom were connected with the Pfaff's scene in one way or another.

People Mentioned in this Work

Alger, Horatio Jr. [pages: 9]
Fred Gray Association, The: Shiveley doesn't mention the group by name, but he goes into great detail about Whitman's relationship with one of the group's members: Fred Vaughan.
Stoddard, Richard Henry [pages: 17]
Vaughan, Frederick B. [pages: 14, 16, 36-50]: Shiveley describes Fred Vaughan as the man "who formed the prototype for Whitman's future lovers" (14). He further asserts that Whitman wrote the Calamus sequence in Leaves of Grass for Vaughan (14).

The author notes that, in addition to being lovers, Vaughan and Whitman lived together (38). It was during this time that Whitman wrote the Calamus poems (39).

Although the relationship eventually began to fall apart, Shiveley notes that Whitman and Vaughan still managed to meet "regularly; only now they met in the semi-gay bar Pfaff's" (40).

According to Shiveley, the end of romantic relationship between Vaughan and Whitman came about after Vaughan impregnated a woman and then married her in 1862 (40).

Shiveley paints a bleak portrait of Vaughan's life after Whitman. He became a father of four or more sons, worked numerous jobs--including elevator operator and insurance salesman, and drank "heavily" (41).
Whitman, Walt: Shiveley's text explores Walt Whitman's identity as a homosexual man and his numerous friendships and/or sexual relationships with boys and young men.