Many of Walt Whitman's earliest readers hailed him as a religiousprophet. For them, Leaves of Grass was more than literary art, it was sacredscripture. Recent scholarship has, however, dismissed those early enthusiasts asnaive, if not crazy. David Kuebrich's new study of Whitman corrects that academicoversight by giving the early Whitmanites their due as the critics who most clearlyperceived the nature and purpose of the poet's labors -- to begin a new religion.Kuebrich's thorough, intelligent study, based squarely on textual evidence, offers arevisionist interpretation of America's great poet, returning religious vision andspirituality to the center of Whitman studies.