Biography

Dr. Stefan Schöberlein Dr. Stefan Schöberlein is an assistant professor of English at Texas A&M University-Central Texas. He serves as contributing editor for the Whitman Archive and associate editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. He is currently writing a biography of Whitman in New Orleans with Dr. Zachary Turpin for University of Iowa Press.

Schedule

10:30 am to 11:15 am
State Capitol, Senate Committee Room E
A Literary Giant and an Ordinary Girl: Old New Orleans through Different Eyes
with Hans Rasmussen and Stefan Schöberlein

11:30 am to 12:15 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

Walt Whitman's New Orleans: Sidewalk Sketches and Newspaper Rambles

Walt Whitman’s short stint in New Orleans during the spring of 1848 was a crucial moment of literary and personal development, with many celebrated poems from Leaves of Grass showing its influence. Walt Whitman’s New Orleans is the first book dedicated to republishing his writings about the Crescent City, including numerous previously unknown pieces.

Often spending his afternoons strolling through the vibrant city with his brother in tow, the young Whitman translated his impressions into short prose sketches that cataloged curious sights, captured typical characters one might meet on the levee, and joked about the strangeness of urban life. Including the first complete run of a fictional, multipart series titled “Sketches of the Sidewalks and Levee,” Walt Whitman’s New Orleans pairs his glimpses of the city with historical illustrations, supplementary texts, detailed annotations, and an introduction by editor Stefan Schöberlein that offers new insights on the poet’s southern sojourn.

Whitmanites, history enthusiasts, and lovers of New Orleans will find much to treasure in these humorous, evocative scenes of antebellum city life.