{"product_id":"9780393070224","title":"What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by \u003cem\u003eBuzzfeed\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eThe Rumpus\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  Effortlessly blending biography, criticism, and memoir, National Book Award–winning poet and best-selling memoirist Mark Doty explores his personal quest for Walt Whitman.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eMark Doty has always felt haunted by Walt Whitman’s bold, perennially new American voice, and by his equally radical claims about body and soul and what it means to be a self. In \u003cem\u003eWhat Is the Grass\u003c\/em\u003e, Doty—a poet, a New Yorker, and an American—keeps company with Whitman and his \u003cem\u003eLeaves of Grass\u003c\/em\u003e, tracing the resonances between his own experience and the legendary poet’s life and work.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhat is it then between us?\u003c\/em\u003e Whitman asks. In search of an answer, Doty explores spaces—both external and internal—where he finds the poet’s ghost. He meditates on desire, love, and the mysterious wellsprings of the poet’s enduring work: a radical experience of transformation and enlightenment, queer sexuality, and an obsession with death, as well as unabashed love for a great city and for the fresh, rowdy character of American speech. In riveting close readings threaded with personal memoir and illuminated by awe, Doty reveals the power of Whitman’s persistent presence in his life and in the American imagination at large.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eHow does a voice survive death? \u003cem\u003eWhat Is the Grass\u003c\/em\u003e is a conversation across time and space, a study of the astonishment one poet finds in the accomplishment of another, and an attempt to grasp Whitman’s deeply hopeful vision of human possibility.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Norton, W. W. \u0026 Company, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47016438333680,"sku":"9780393070224","price":25.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780393070224_p0.jpg?v=1763696477","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780393070224","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}