Kelson of the Creation — About the trilogy

the story of “Leaves of Grass”—

— immerses readers in a lost world: Walt Whitman’s mast-hemmed Manhattan.

Drawing upon Mitchell Santine Gould’s historical findings, Kelson of the Creation illustrates how radical Quaker theology helped pave the way for Transcendentalism and the Free Love movement.

The story is inspired by a secret cache of letters from the man who inspired Walt Whitman: young omnibus driver Frederick Burpee Vaughan.

Essential for fans of historical fiction and spiritual seekers alike, it dramatizes a tragic love story during America’s original Summer of Love: the repressive, mystical, eloquent, radical, manic, rebellious period which culminated in the Civil War.

Sailor

those who love each other shall be invincible

Sailor is the first book in the Kelson of the Creation trilogy. It imagines an impassioned, bittersweet backstory for Walt Whitman’s most crucial, but most mysterious, lover.

Inspired by the novels of Herman Melville, Sailor portrays a sensitive young man whose vices alienate him from society. After a disastrous experience as a sailor, Fred joins the brotherhood of omnibus drivers in a city ruled by rowdy, ruthless fire laddies; impulsive, downtrodden sailors; and Quaker visionaries.

Determined to reform his reputation, Fred resists Walt Whitman’s seductions until their encounters at an opera, a monumental fire, and a play bring him repeatedly into Walt’s arms.

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Lover

soon I saw him content himself without me

In Book Two, Fred at last becomes the Lover. With the gusto of Pepé Le Pew, Walt has been pursuing Gotham’s omnibus drivers. The lover he most wants—Fred Vaughan—distrusts the cocky, gregarious journalist.

Even after the charismatic Mad Hatter conquers his heart, Fred remains locked “in the dark confinement” behind “a secret silent loathing and despair.” For years, Walt has been chafing to write a book powerful enough to cure that loathing and despair.

Then his ecstasy over Fred’s love, and his grief over his father’s imminent death, rip his heart open—open to the very kelson of Creation. Yet, the triumph of Leaves of Grass is soon shadowed by the sorrows sung in the Calamus poems.

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Quaker

capabilities for delight are planted by God

The final volume, Quaker, explores the “long foreground” of Leaves of Grass—which stretches back before Whitman’s birth. It serves the trilogy as both prequel and sequel.

Eliza Seaman Leggett is a relative of Whitman’s greatest hero, theologian Elias Hicks. Witness to both Whitman’s birth and his last days, she shares with Walt a complete understanding of a spiritual schism which would alter American history.

With Leaves of Grass, Walt steps into Hicks’s shoes, to become the spokesbard for the Sailors, Lovers, and Quakers who made New York our mightiest seaport—and America’s capital of Tolerance.

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