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Tom Chaney Feb. 15, 2009: #194, Hart Co. Poet A.A. Whitman Of Writers And Their Books: No. 194 Essay on A.A. Whitman, Hart County Poet. Last week's Tom Chaney essay: Theatre on Hard Times in Horse Cave a plea for patrons of Kentucky Repertory Theatre to help in time of financial distress By Tom Chaney bookstore@scrtc.com A. A. Whitman -- Hart County Poet I was reminded a few days ago that readers of this column will suffer their fourth anniversary of exquisite torture this week. I decided for the first column to write of A. A. Whitman during Black History Month. It is appropriate to repeat that column now in celebration of Whitman, of black history, and of Of Writers and Their Books. "I was born in the Green River Country in Hart County. Kentucky, May 30th, 1851. I was a slave until Emancipation. My parents left me and went to the Good Land when I was yet a boy. My chances for education have not been good. In that matter, however, I have done what I could." Thus begins the introduction to Not a Man and Yet a Man by America's foremost black poet of the Nineteenth Century. Largely neglected for most of the Twentieth Century, Albery Allson Whitman was once well-known for his long narrative poems celebrating the potential of the black man emerging from slavery. Little is known about the location of Whitman's birth or the identity of the white folks who held title to him and to his parents, Caswell and Caroline Bronner Whitman. We know he was the middle child of a family of four sons and one daughter. He tells us in his poetry: I never was a slave -- a robber tookOccasionally in his poetry he mentions personal matters and from the poems and his prefaces we may draw a reasonably clear picture of the country of his birth. By the time he was 22 Whitman had published two volumes of poetry: Essays on the Ten Plagues and Other Miscellaneous Poems, before 1873, and Leelah Misled, published in Elizabethtown in 1873. By the mid-1870's he evidently was located in the area of Zanesville, Ohio. In 1877 he published Not a Man and Yet a Man written as a fund-raising project for Wilberforce University where he evidently studied. Whitman had become a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In William J. Simmons volume Men of Mark, a dictionary of black biography, Whitman is allotted a page and a half and the publication of two of his shorter poems. Whitman's poetry is largely out of print these days. Occasionally one finds an old volume of his work, or a mention of him in an account of Nineteenth Century literature. February is Black History Month. It is appropriate to recall that Hart County gave the nation one of its best early black poets. The city of Munfordville also has acknowledged the county's native son. Should you drive out Kentucky highway 357 and turn left on Line Street, you will come to A. A. Whitman Lane. Take a right and Whitman Lane leads you to the Hart County Library. Wander in and discover other books and writers and poems. Take a moment before you enter to read the Kentucky Historical Marker dedicated to A. A. Whitman. Hart County does pay homage to its own. Tom Chaney can be found telling stories, smoking pipe-weed, and occasionally selling books at: THE BOOKSTORE Box 73 / 111 Water Street Horse Cave, Kentucky 42749 270-786-3084 Email: Tom Chaney bookstore@scrtc.com To read other Tom Chaney book reviews and essays, enter "Tom Chaney" in the searchbox. The Bookstore in Horse Cave, KY This story was posted on 2009-02-15 06:00:49
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Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Tom Chaney: Of Writers and Their Books:
Tom Chaney Comment for Feb. 8, 2009: KTR needs help now Tom Chaney #192, Feb. 1, 2009: Review of Julian Tom Chaney #191, Jan. 25, 2009: Tom Chaney No. 190, Jan. 18, 2009: Review-The Private Patient Tom Chaney No. 189, Jan. 11, 2009: Review of The Other Tom Chaney: No. 188. Essay: New Year's Resolution Tom Chaney: No. 187. Essay: Country Ham at Christmas Tom Chaney: Review Dec. 14, 2008 of Lincoln the Lawyer Tom Chaney: Reprint of Review of Lion of Whitehall Tom Chaney No. 185. Nov. 30, 2008: Geraldine Brooks View even more articles in topic Tom Chaney: Of Writers and Their Books |
 
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