Live Oak, with Moss

As he was turning forty, Walt Whitman wrote twelve poems in a small handmade book he entitled “Live Oak, With Moss.” The poems were intensely private reflections on his attraction to and affection for other men. They were also Whitman’s most adventurous explorations of the theme of same-sex love, composed decades before the word “homosexual” came into use. Whitman never published the cycle. Instead he cut them up, rearranged them, and hid them in the “Calamus” cluster of poems in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. Selznick has been greatly influenced by Whitman and has created more than 100 pages of original images that form a visual narrative around his work which provide a stirring interpretation.This transporting tour de force presents Whitman like never before and will be beloved by Selznick’s myriad fans as well as poetry lovers everywhere. An afterword by Professor Karen Karbiener illuminates the story of Whitman’s enigmatic cluster of poems, provides keys for interpreting their meanings, and highlights their contemporary significance”–