Frequent Q&Q reviewer George Fetherling’s third novel is an intriguing look at one of America’s most influential poets. The novel focuses on the last years of Whitman’s life as observed by his real-life friend Horace Traubel, who wrote the nine-volume With Walt Whitman in Camden. Whitman was 72 when he died in 1892, and Traubel knew him only after Whitman had suffered a debilitating stroke. Fetherling has borrowed from Traubel’s work to the extent that he often uses words that Traubel attributed to the poet. In this fictionalized version, Traubel sends his material to Flora MacDonald, the Canadian suffragist and Whitman fan, who appears as a character.

While the novel focuses on the poet’s final years, it also gives glimpses into Whitman’s early days. Although critics disagree about Whitman’s sexual experience, Fetherling has him acting upon his homosexuality, engaging in serious relationships with at least two men and having many casual encounters. But that isn’t the secret of the novel’s title. The secret is something else entirely, something political in nature that the poet vowed not to divulge until he was at death’s door.

Fetherling excels at creating appropriate voices for his characters. He also provides an excellent and sensitive picture of a gifted man whose body disintegrated long before his mind.

Many of the book’s characters live compartmentalized lives curtailed by the restrictions of their repressive society. The free-thinking that marked Whitman appealed to his devotees. From the perspective of the 21st century, it’s difficult to imagine how troublesome free thought was once considered to be.

Fetherling has written an engaging and illuminating novel, full of life and history and poetry and remarkable people. Walt Whitman’s Secret will make readers drag out their copies of Leaves of Grass to experience Whitman’s genius again.