Walt Whitman's place in U.S. letters is unchallenged: he is the poet of America, democracy, and individual freedom. Yet Whitman and his work have been misrepresented by scholars and critics during the 20th century, and it is only recently that they have begun admitting the poet's homosexuality and examining its effect on his work. Gary Schmidgall's bold and well-researched Walt Whitman: A Gay Life presents abundant and irrefutable evidence of the poet's vibrant sexuality and details Whitman's sexual and romantic affairs. More important, however, he explains how Whitman's attraction to men was at the root of his poetic vision: in Whitman's work the "body electric" is more than a metaphor. Walt Whitman: A Gay Life is a vital addition to Whitman studies and critical work on American literature.