[ARSCLIST] Shout Factory Poetry Box still continues Walt Whitman Cylinder hoax

[Steve Ramm <Stevramm@xxxxxxx>]

I got an email today from Shout Factory about their box sets for the  holiday 
gift season. One was:
 
_Shout!  Factory - Poetry on Record - Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their 
Work  (1888-2006)_ 
(http://www.shoutfactory.com/selection/292/poetry_on_record_poetry_on_record:_98_poets_read_their_work_(1888-2006).html)  
 
As you will see the fraudulent Walt Whitman cylinder is included. No matter  
what we do, we can't kill this myth. It certainly is great for promoting a 
set,  showing how early they went back to include it.
 
I wrote to SF and sent them the NPR story on the cylinder. The reply I got  
was:
 
 
Rebekah addresses this in her  essay: Of  the three Edison recordings, only 
the one of  the American giant of modern poetry, Walt Whitman, has had its 
authenticity  questioned. We know that Edison wished to  record Whitman, and we 
know that Whitman (who was so tireless a self-promoter  that he once reviewed 
his own book!) would have liked to be recorded. His  four-line poem, “America,” 
 published in the 1889 edition of Leaves Of  Grass, seems too obscure to be 
chosen by a forger. As Galway Kinnell  points out, Whitman wanted to be seen as 
more patriotic and acceptable to the  general public late in his life, which 
is why he wrote such work as  “America.”  Still, the original wax cylinder 
has never been found and neither has any  documentation verifying that the 
recording session took place. Kinnell, who says  he is unsure of the recording’s 
authenticity, also says that the first time he  heard it, a flock of birds flew 
to the ceiling of the church he was in at the  moment Whitman’s voice hit the 
air.  
I'm  posting this JUST incase any Sound Archives have purchased this set. 
They should  be aware. The same thing happened about a year ago with a book and 
CD set  "Poetry Speaks" from Source Books. 
Steve