Machine generated contents note: The Work in the Writer ix -- Harold Bloom --Introduction 1 -- Harold Bloom --Biography of Walt Whitman 5 -- Judith Connors --"The Proof of a Poet"-Walt Whitman -- and His Critics 55 -- Matt Longabucco --Some Lines from Whitman 83 -- RandallJarrell --"As If I Were With You"-The Performance -- of Whitman's Poetry 99 -- Stephen Railton --Chronology 123 --Works by Walt Whitman 129 --Works about Walt Whitman 131 --Contributors 137 --Index 139.