ISBN: 1-931816-03-4
ISBN 13: 978-1-931816-03-8
$14.95 , 144 pages
$11.96 Online Price
(Quality paperback)

Foreword

This study of Thoreau and Whitman is valuable not only as a critical interpretation, but as a deeply insightful "biography" of these two great minds, in charting which Dr. Hourihan brings to his task a certain inwardness of understanding combined with the force of personal conviction. While the contrasting features of Thoreau's and Whitman's temperaments are brought into sharp focus, it is shown that, in their own individual ways, both men had experience, at one time or another, of the ecstasy of being. I agree with his argument that both men were "failed" mystics who could not stabilize their insights. But of course this is so only when we judge them by the highest standards of mystical experience that we know of. The "dual consciousness" or the consciousness of the "I" as a witness ("sakshi" in Vedantic language) did perhaps persist throughout their lives. In Whitman's case, as Karl Shapiro once wrote:

His leap into the personal infinite, however,
saved him from drowning in his Susquehanna.

Unfortunately, in our time, the message of these men is all but forgotten. Thoreau urged his countrymen to simplify their lives and turn their minds to the exploration of the self within. "Simplify, simplify," "Explore thyself," "Be an expert in home cosmography," he exhorted them. But his "chanticleer" calls have been swept away by the aggressive commercialism and expansionism of our age. It is equally ironic that Whitman's cosmic self lies decentered, in tatters amid all the contending idioms and ideologies of modern criticism―new nationalism, new historicism, deconstruction, gender politics, and so forth.

At a time like this, Dr. Hourihan performs a valuable service by his courageous reaffirmation of what is of permanent value in the lives and works of two of the most original minds in American literature.

- V. K. Chari, Professor Emeritus, Carleton University, and author of Whitman in the Light of Vedantic Mysticism

Contents