O Captain, My Captain: Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, and the Civil War

by Robert Burleigh, Sterling Hundley (Illustrator)

Overview

Dramatic, lyrical, and beautifully illustrated, author Robert Burleigh and artist Sterling Hundley’s picture book O Captain, My Captain tells the story of one of America’s greatest poets and how he was inspired by one of America’s greatest presidents.

Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln shared the national stage in Washington, DC, during the Civil War. Though the two men never met, Whitman would often see Lincoln’s carriage on the road. The president was never far from the poet’s mind, and Lincoln’s “grace under pressure” was something Whitman returned to again and again in his poetry. Whitman witnessed Lincoln’s second inauguration and mourned along with America as Lincoln’s funeral train wound its way across the landscape to his final resting place.

The book includes the poem “O Captain! My Captain!” and an excerpt from “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” brief bios of Lincoln and Whitman, a timeline of Civil War events, endnotes, and a bibliography.

“Engaging and picturesque . . . This book is a substantive contribution to the recognition of Walt Whitman and his place in American literary history for young readers.” —School Library Connection (Starred Review)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419733581
Publisher:	Abrams Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 10.70(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	890L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Robert Burleigh has written a number of bestselling children’s books—including O Captain, My Captain; Hit the Road, Jack; and George Bellows, Painter with a Punch!—that have received multiple starred reviews and awards, including the Orbis Pictus, Texas Bluebonnet Master List, CCBC Choices, and an ALA Notable. He lives outside Chicago.


Sterling Hundley is a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. His work has been regarded among the mostly highly acclaimed in the illustration world. He was named Illustrator of the Year by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Editorial Reviews

03/11/2019

Burleigh tells the story of the poet and of the president he so admired, sprinkling quotes from Whitman and lines of his poetry throughout: “Walt saw everything: the tall and lanky body, the dark complexion, the ‘wrinkled and canny-looking’ face.” Passages explore the invisible threads connecting the two men, including their compassion for Civil War soldiers, antipathy of slavery, and abiding love for their wounded nation. Burleigh also dramatizes the moment when, overcome with emotion after Lincoln’s assassination, Whitman creates the well-known poem: “O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done.” Hundley’s striking art blends naturalistic portraiture with contrasting shadowy blues and fiery oranges and renders Lincoln as giantlike in stature, visually emblematizing the president’s enormity of character and influence. An emotionally and historically resonant homage to two kindred spirits. Ages 10–up. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

**STARRED REVIEW**
"Engaging and picturesque . . . This book is a substantive contribution to the recognition of Walt Whitman and his place in American literary history for young readers."

School Library Connection

"Utilizing a succinct, yet lyrical style, Burleigh quotes frequently from Whitman's poetry, providing a good sense of this nineteenth-century icon. Hundley's mixed-media artwork favors black, white, and sepia (consistent with period photos), embellished with color washes . . . Carefully researched and beautifully rendered."

Booklist

**STARRED REVIEW**
"Engaging and picturesque . . . This book is a substantive contribution to the recognition of Walt Whitman and his place in American literary history for young readers."—School Library Connection

"Hundley's illustrations mirror the tone of the book impeccably, with the harsh blacks, dusty sepia, and brownish reds capturing the weight and cruelty of war . . . The added use of Whitman's poetry throughout the text lends eloquence."—Kirkus Reviews

"An emotionally and historically resonant homage to two kindred spirits."—Publishers Weekly

"Utilizing a succinct, yet lyrical style, Burleigh quotes frequently from Whitman's poetry, providing a good sense of this nineteenth-century icon. Hundley's mixed-media artwork favors black, white, and sepia (consistent with period photos), embellished with color washes . . . Carefully researched and beautifully rendered."—Booklist

From the Publisher

"Utilizing a succinct, yet lyrical style, Burleigh quotes frequently from Whitman's poetry, providing a good sense of this nineteenth-century icon. Hundley's mixed-media artwork favors black, white, and sepia (consistent with period photos), embellished with color washes . . . Carefully researched and beautifully rendered."

Booklist

2019-01-28

Burleigh and Hundley focus on the role that the Civil War—and specifically President Abraham Lincoln—played in the life of American poet Walt Whitman.

This is an ambitious, beautiful, bleak, and imperfect piece of historical fiction. Whitman was so affected by the strife in his politically divided country that he relocated from his home in New York to Washington to serve as a nurse to young, injured Union soldiers. The book details Whitman's roles as a caregiver and engaged city resident but always through the context of his appreciation for the president. While imagining Whitman's time in Washington, author Burleigh supposes several moments in which the lives of the men intersect. As Burleigh explains in his author's note, these moments are pulled from Whitman's own writings and are considered valid by historians, but they are given extra emotional weight in this writing. Hundley's illustrations mirror the tone of the book impeccably, with the harsh blacks, dusty sepia, and brownish reds capturing the weight and cruelty of war. The illustrations capture a hyper-realistic Lincoln, imagining him larger than life. The added use of Whitman's poetry throughout the text lends eloquence, and the backmatter (biographies, timeline, selected poems, endnotes, index) is weighty. Overall, the book is bold and aspirational, but its admirers will likely be educators instead of children.

A worthy supporting player in a curriculum but not the star of the show. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews